Jack Ma

Name: Jack Ma or Ma Yun

Born: September 10, 1964, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

Computer-related contributions

• Chinese business and Internet entrepreneur.
• Executive chairman of Alibaba Group.
• Former lecturer in English and International Trade at the Hangzhou Dianzi University.
• Founded China Yellowpages, considered to be China's first Internet-based company (1995).

Honors and awards

• First mainland Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes.
• Awarded an honorary doctoral degree by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2013).
• Chosen by Forbes Asia as one of "Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy" (2010).
• Listed in Time Magazine's World's 100 most influential people (2009).
• Named one of the "25 Most Powerful Businesspeople in Asia" by Fortune (2005).

Quotes

"The day we got connected to the Web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house," and on a very slow dial-up connection, "we waited three and a half hours and got half a page.... We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved (to my house guests that) the Internet existed."