Maggie Zhou Departs Alibaba Group After 22 Years

She will depart from the company on 29 July. Pier Smulders will take her place – Smulders has led the New Zealand operations for five years. “I’m confident that Pier and the local teams will continue to thrive and grow together with the communities,” she said in a statement.

Zhou will now move to work as the Senior Advisor at Jack Ma Foundation.

“People say that time flies when you’re having fun, and as I look back at my 22 years at Alibaba Group, these wise words have never felt truer,” Zhou shared. “When I joined Alibaba more than two decades ago, I could never have imagined the exciting journey that lay ahead of me. I’m extremely proud of all that we’ve accomplished as a company, including being listed in New York and Hong Kong, as well as the many innovative technologies we’ve developed that have transformed the way we live, work and play.”

Zhou moved to Melbourne as the Managing Director of ANZ in 2016, an experience she said reminded her of the ‘early start-up days’ of Alibaba, where she “was able to explore exciting new frontiers and ideas and help shape the operation from the very beginning.”

While Zhou didn’t specify the exact reason why she is departing the role, she said it was time for someone else to take the lead.

“Maggie has been instrumental in building our Australia and New Zealand operations from the ground up and for spearheading it as Managing Director for the past six years,” shared the team at Alibaba. According to the business, Zhou has “built a strong presence in the region, serving and supporting thousands of businesses of all sizes and from all sectors and industries.”

“Widely respected and loved by staff, partners and the local community, Maggie will no doubt be dearly missed as she steps down from her role with us.”

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