Brief biography:
Yale College ’86, Yale Law School ’90
Joe Tsai is a co-founder and chairman of Alibaba Group, a global Internet technology company based in China. His career at Alibaba spans over 25 years, including serving as the company’s chief financial officer and overseeing strategic investments. He has served on the Alibaba board since the company’s inception in 1999. Tsai is chairman of sports and entertainment company BSE Global, which owns the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty and the teams’ home arena Barclays Center. He has a passion for lacrosse, having played for the Yale men’s varsity lacrosse team, and he is a consistent supporter of the Yale men’s and women’s lacrosse programs. He owns professional indoor lacrosse teams – the San Diego Seals and Las Vegas Desert Dogs, and is an investor in professional field lacrosse – the Premier Lacrosse League. In 2017, Tsai received the George H.W. Bush ‘48 Lifetime of Leadership Award, which honors alumni athletes for significant leadership contributions in their lives after Yale. Through the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, Tsai and his wife Clara are active philanthropists supporting initiatives in education, research, social justice, economic mobility, the arts and humanitarian relief. Tsai is a founding board member of The Asian American Foundation (TAAF), a non-profit that provides resources to Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities to combat hate and discrimination and support AAPI advocacy, prosperity and representation. In 2021 and 2022, Tsai was a Visiting Fellow with the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (Tsai CITY) where he gave lectures and hosted discussions for programs including Pathways in Innovation, Tsai CITY Talks and Advanced Founders Program. In addition, he co-taught the Leading in Crisis reading group at Yale Law School with Dean Heather Gerken. Prior to Alibaba Group, Tsai worked in private equity for Investor AB, the holding company of Sweden’s Wallenberg family. He practiced tax law as an associate with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York.
Portrait:
Profession and title:
Chairman, Alibaba Group