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Recent leadership changes at Alibaba’s e-commerce division see veterans retire and younger leaders take over.

Posted on by darion

According to Chinese media reports, on May 1, senior executives including Wang Hai, Liu Peng, Yu Feng and Wang Mingqiang left Taobao and Tmall Group.

Taobao and Tmall Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Alibaba Group Holding chief executive Eddie Wu Yongming took over as chief executive of Taobao and Tmall Group’s e-commerce units last December, where he has served as chairman since May 2023. Photo: Alibaba
Recent leadership changes at Taobao and Tmall Group show how Alibaba is heeding the company’s co-founder’s calls Jacek Mam “believe” and “give more power” to young people in an internal note last month.
Wu, who became Alibaba’s chief executive last September, said: Hangzhoubased in the company is committed to supporting the career development of younger employees in order to take up management positions.
“Over the next four years, we will promote people born after 1985 and 1990 to form the core of our enterprise management teams,” he wrote in internal writing then.

Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed 0.65 percent lower at HK$76.30 on Thursday.

A large Taobao mascot is displayed outdoors at the headquarters of Alibaba Group Holding. Photo: Shutterstock

According to Alibaba’s latest annual report released last week, Wang Hai – who served as vice president at Taobao and Tmall Group – was one of two names removed from the company’s list of partners. He joined Alibaba in 2003 and led key e-commerce operations including 1688.com and Taobao Special Offer Edition.

Chinese retail industry veteran Liu Peng was director of the Taobao and Tmall Group brand development center and other consumer retail operations.

Yu Feng was vice president of Taobao’s content division after joining Alibaba in 2006, and also worked for 13 years at mobile payments platform Alipay. Wang Mingqiang, who joined Alibaba in 2005, has held management positions in the Taobao search unit and AliExpressinternational shopping platform of the e-commerce giant.
Other Alibaba veterans who have stepped down since the tech conglomerate’s announcement thorough restructuring in March they include the former president and CEO Daniel Zhang Yong AND Yu Yongfuwho previously headed the company’s Local Services Group.