The departure of Ma, who retired as Alibaba's executive chairman
in September, comes as he pulls back from formal business roles to focus on
philanthropy.
SoftBank Group
Corp said on Monday that Alibaba
co-founder Jack Ma will resign from its board, in the latest departure by a
high-profile ally of CEO Masayoshi Son.
The departure of Ma, who retired as Alibaba's executive chairman in September, comes as he pulls back from formal business roles to focus on philanthropy.
The departure of Ma, who retired as Alibaba's executive chairman in September, comes as he pulls back from formal business roles to focus on philanthropy.
SoftBank will
propose three new appointments to the board, including group Chief Financial
Officer Yoshimoto Goto, at its annual general meeting on June 25. The number of
board members will expand to 13.
SoftBank
will also propose the election of Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of chip design software firm
Cadence Design Systems who is also chairman of venture capital firm Walden
International, and Yuko Kawamoto, a professor at Waseda Business School as
outside directors. Kawamoto will become its only female board member.
That meets a
demand from activist investor Elliott Management, which has pressed SoftBank to
improve board diversity, and also wants a new subcommittee to oversee the
investment process at the $100 billion Vision Fund.
The pressure comes
as Son's top-down management style is under increased scrutiny with the fund
expected to report its third consecutive quarterly operating loss later on
Monday, plunging the group as a whole to a record loss.
The board is
largely comprised of SoftBank insiders and confidants. It also includes Yasir
al-Rumayyan, who heads the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund that is the
Vision Fund's biggest outside backer.
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