Alibaba founder Jack Ma conducts first class as visiting professor at Japan’s University of Tokyo
- Ma, 58, was the featured speaker on June 12 at a special ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ seminar attended by an international group of students
- The two-hour seminar was focused on management philosophy, based on Ma’s ‘rich experience’ in entrepreneurship and innovation
Ma, 58, served as the featured speaker on June 12 at a special “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” seminar, which was jointly organised by Tokyo College and the University of Tokyo’s Global Leadership Programme (GLP), according to a statement from the university on Friday.
The two-hour seminar was focused on management philosophy and how the younger generation can achieve success in the future, a theme based on Ma’s “rich experience and pioneering knowledge of entrepreneurship and innovation”, the statement said.
The University of Tokyo’s GLP is an innovative, transdisciplinary four-year undergraduate programme launched by the school in April 2014. GLP is designed to equip the university’s students with competences and skills to act effectively as “change makers” on the global stage, according to the school.
Ma’s new stint at the University of Tokyo underscores the Chinese tech billionaire’s return to public life as an educator and researcher, as he keeps an arm’s length from Alibaba and the vast business empire he created. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
“Well, first of all, Jack is alive. He’s well, he’s happy. He’s creative. He’s thinking,” Evans said. “He’s teaching at a university in Tokyo, [while also] spending more time in China.”