Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, is now a visiting professor at a new Tokyo institution. He will instruct students in a variety of subjects, including essential research topics and more.
The founder of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma, is now a professor at a new Tokyo institution. The billionaire appears prepared to return to public life after a brief disappearance in late 2020, when Beijing tightened down on internet entrepreneurs. However, the magnate has not accepted a full-time teaching position and has instead accepted the institution’s offer to serve as a visiting lecturer.
His contract with the institution expires at the end of October 2023, but he has the option to renew it annually. Ma has enrolled in a 2019-founded institution administered by the University of Tokyo. This college supposedly serves as a liaison between the University of Tokyo and foreign researchers and research institutions.
He will instruct students in a variety of areas at the institution, including advising on key research topics and delivering lectures on management and business start-ups. Ma is expected to conduct research on sustainable agriculture and food production in his new position, Tokyo College announced on Monday.
The beginning of Ma’s term as a visiting professor is May 1. It signifies the 58-year-old’s return to teaching following his September 2019 retirement from Alibaba. The entrepreneur taught English for a number of years prior to co-founding Alibaba.
Since March, when he returned to the school he built in his birthplace of Hangzhou, east China, Ma has been in the public eye. In April, he was appointed honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong. According to media accounts, Ma’s recent action is one of the few public commitments he has made outside of China. Late in 2021, the millionaire vanished from China and was later spotted in Australia, Japan, and Thailand.