Alibaba’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange this year was the largest stock market flotation in history. The Chinese ecommerce group became the second-largest internet company in the world after Google, with a market capitalisation of more than $230bn.
But there is another, less noted measure by which Alibaba outperforms many of its Silicon Valley rivals: the number of women who occupy key executive roles. A third of Alibaba’s 18 founding partners are female, and women account for nine of the 30 partners who control management decisions. By contrast, at Yahoo just 23 per cent of executives of vice-president rank or higher are women — and the same proportion of female senior directors applies at Facebook.
Maggie Wu is the most visible of Alibaba’s top-tier women. As chief financial officer, she helped front its US investor roadshow, fielding questions about the usually secretive company’s growth projections and complex financial structure. Wu, 46, joined Alibaba in 2007 after 15 years at the consultancy KPMG. Her first year involved work on the flotation of alibaba.com, the group’s wholesale website; she then co-led its reprivatisation in 2012.