The New York Times reported that Jack Ma, one of the richest men in China is to step down as Alibaba’s executive chairman. Mr. Ma was the co-founder of the e-commerce empire was the spearhead of the company.

The newspaper said that Mr. Ma will remain on the board of directors in Alibaba but will focus on philanthropy in education.

Alibaba was founded in 199 and is one of the world’s biggest e-commerce companies.

Alibaba co-founded by Jack Ma has a market value of over $400 billion. Alibaba include cloud computing, online selling and film production.

Mr. Ma in an interview with the New York Times said that his retirement would be the beginning of an era and not the end. He also added “I love education”.

According to the 2017 Forbes’ China rich list, Jack Ma is the third richest person in China and his net worth is around the $40 billion mark. Mr. Ma will turn 54 on Monday.

Earlier this week, Jack Ma told Bloomberg TV that he wanted to follow the footsteps of Microsoft’s Bill Gates and wanted to create a personal foundation.

In the very beginning of his career Jack Ma was an English teacher at a university in Hangzhou, China. Alibaba was started by Mr. Ma and his friends from his flat in Hangzhou.