Alibaba founder Jack Ma has been named an honorary professor of business at the University of Hong Kong.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered from the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper wholly owned by Alibaba, that the development was announced by the University’s management on Friday.
The news comes about five years after the same institution bestowed an honorary doctorate on Ma.
According to the University’s spokesperson, Ma accepted the professorship from its business school.
However, the Institute stated that the billionaire businessman would not be giving public lectures or speeches during his three-quarter professorship, which will end in March 2026.
The University said it welcomed Ma sharing “his rich knowledge and experience in business innovation and development,” noting that Ma has “no plans for public lectures or speeches.”
It was also learnt that the institute’s website now contains a profile of Ma’s highlighting his expertise in “management and strategy.”
The Jack Ma Foundation, a charitable organisation set up by the billionaire in 2014, told the Post that “after a hiatus from the world of education, Mr Ma looks forward to returning to campus life.”
Before founding Alibaba, Ma taught English for eight years at Hangzhou Dianzi University in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang.
In 2015, he co-founded a center for entrepreneurship in Zhejiang with several Chinese business titans.