--- title: Alibaba IPO: Founder Jack Ma Interview with TIME description: The Alibaba IPO will set a record, but the company's founder has other things to thing about canonical: https://time.com/3387425/alibaba-jack-ma/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-19T15:20:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:13:02.533Z article:section: History og:title: Meet Jack Ma, the man behind Alibaba og:description: The Alibaba IPO looks to set a record og:url: https://time.com/3387425/alibaba-jack-ma/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79d7e449601d56f8/6986a39a810bbbb005c93733/jack-ma.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet Jack Ma, the man behind Alibaba twitter:description: The Alibaba IPO looks to set a record twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79d7e449601d56f8/6986a39a810bbbb005c93733/jack-ma.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Alibaba Founder Jack Ma's Other Big Job  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 19, 2014 3:20 PM UTC  Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., in Hong Kong on Sept. 15, 2014. Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., in Hong Kong on Sept. 15, 2014.Brent Lewin — Bloomberg / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 19, 2014 3:20 PM UTC Friday’s Alibaba initial public offering will [officially](http://time.com/3399647/alibaba-ipo-stock-offering/) be the largest in U.S. history: the Chinese e-commerce giant is raising $21.8 billion with its stock debut. But Alibaba’s billionaire co-founder Jack Ma — though a major presence on the IPO circuit and a major beneficiary of it, standing to gain hundreds of millions of dollars from the stock — isn’t just focusing on his company and its earnings. In fact, last May he stepped down from his position as CEO. (He’s still the company’s chairman.) He is, as Victor Luckerson [spelled out](http://time.com/91523/alibaba-ipo-jack-ma/) earlier this year, not your typical tech honcho. Rather, he’s a former English teacher who doesn’t code and loves the soundtrack to _The Lion King_. He’s also one of China’s most important environmentalists, as Bryan Walsh explained in a 2013 TIME profile of Ma: --- > “” --- **_Read Bryan Walsh’s full 2013 profile of Jack Ma here:_** [From Gold to Green](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2144568,00.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3387425/alibaba-jack-ma/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3387425/alibaba-jack-ma/"},"headline":"Alibaba Founder Jack Ma's Other Big Job","datePublished":"2014-09-19T15:20:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:13:02.533Z","description":"The Alibaba IPO will set a record, but the company's founder has focused on China's environmental problems","url":"https://time.com/3387425/alibaba-jack-ma/","keywords":["Technology","Economy","China","Business topic","IPO","alibaba","Jack Ma"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79d7e449601d56f8/6986a39a810bbbb005c93733/jack-ma.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79d7e449601d56f8/6986a39a810bbbb005c93733/jack-ma.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma","caption":"Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma","creditText":"Brent Lewin — Bloomberg / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/technology/","name":"Technology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3387425/alibaba-jack-ma/","name":"Alibaba Founder Jack Ma's Other Big Job"}}]}] ```