Jack Ma: The Chinese Billionaire Helping the World Fight COVID-19
Jack Ma, co-founder and former CEO and Executive Chairman of the technology conglomerate Alibaba Group, is a Chinese investor, businessman, and philanthropist.
His rise from rejections and poverty, to becoming the richest man in China is perhaps, one of the greatest mud to marble floor stories ever told.
Jack – Ma Yun was born in Hangzhou, China on September 10, 1964, and graduated from Hangzhou Normal University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1988 after he had failed university entrance examination two times before getting in at the third attempt. He has two siblings and they grew up in a poor family in a time when communist China was isolated from the rest of the world. Jack had learned to speak English from a young age and would offer to act as a tour guide to tourists in exchange for more English lessons and as a means to practice.
Before his fortune, Jack was a lecturer of English and International Trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University with a monthly salary of $12. But, his trip to America in early 1995 as a translator for a Chinese firm and encounter with the internet for the first time would mark the beginning of what he has become today.
In 1999, after starting two failed businesses – Chinapages and Hangzhou Haibo Translation Agency, Jack returned to Hangzhou with a group of 18 friends and founded the e-commerce company Alibaba in his apartment. Alibaba Group now specializes in technology and fintech, entertainment, internet and cloud services, retail, and e-commerce.
Jack Ma’s net worth is estimated at $43.2 as of July 1, 2020. And while he serves/served on boards of many notable organizations like SoftBank, and Huayi Brothers, he is also a global figure listed as one of the most powerful and respected persons and leaders in the world beginning from 2004 to the present by CCTV, Forbes, Times, Fortune, KPMG, among others. He has received countless honorary degrees, some of which were given by the University of Hong Kong, Tel Aviv University, and De La Salle University.
Currently, he serves as the United Nations’ Advocate for Sustainable Development Goals.
Jack Ma was one of the first responders to the incident of COVID-19 around the world. Ma donated 1.1 million testing kits, six million masks, and 60,000 protective suits and face shields to 54 African countries. He also sent medical supplies to several other countries including 500,000 testing kits and 1 million face masks to the U.S.
Following the donations, the Chinese billionaire also committed $14 million to help develop a vaccine for COVID-19. He also sent a second batch of testing kits and medical supplies to all 54 African countries, including 500 ventilators.
The third batch to the continent included 4.6 million masks, 500,000 test kits, 300 ventilators, and several other medical supplies.
Jack Ma was one of the honourees in the Neusroom 100 list of People, Organizations, Countries, and Things Helping the World Conquer COVID-19. See the full list of honourees here.
Written by Humphrey Anyim
Designer: Kume Akpubi
