Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang Steps Down from Tmall and Taobao, Succeeded by Trudy Dai

Alibaba Group Holding (HK: 9988) chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang has relinquished his role as legal representative of the corporation behind Tmall and Taobao, with Trudy Dai, one of Alibaba's founding members, taking over.

At the end of last year, Zhang appointed Dai to be in charge of the China digital commerce unit in an internal letter to employees.

The management reshuffle comes as the company navigates an economic slowdown and a tightened regulatory environment amid a crackdown on the technology sector.

Alibaba posted a 10% increase in revenue in Q4 2021, the first time its quarterly sales growth fell below 20% since going public in 2014.

Dai has worked across multiple business segments in the tech giant. In January, she started her first major initiative as president of domestic e-commerce by re-organizing the back-end operations of Taobao and Tmall. Before starting her job in that role, Dai served as Alibaba's chief customer officer from June 2014 to January 2017 and president of its industrial e-commerce operation from January 2017 to December 2021. 

Zhang joined Alibaba in 2007 as Taobao’s CFO. Two years later, Zhang created China’s version of Black Friday, called the Double Eleven Shopping Festival. He became president in 2011 when Tmall became an independent unit. Currently, Tmall is one of the largest B2C online shopping platforms in the world.