Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma has been invited to be a visiting professor at Tokyo College, a new organisation run by the University of Tokyo, the university said on Monday.?Tokyo College said that Ma had joined as a visiting professor from May 1.
The billionaire?from China will carry out research in sustainable agriculture and food production, it said in a statement.?At the college, Jack Ma will also be engaged in areas including advising on important research themes and giving lectures on management and business start-ups.
The appointment term for China's best-known entrepreneur finishes at the end of October, but the contract is renewable on an annual basis, the university said.
It said that Ma, who also heads his own Jack Ma Foundation, a philanthropic organisation, will "share his rich experience and pioneering knowledge on entrepreneurship, corporate management and innovation" with students and faculty.
This comes as Ma has begun to reassume a public profile after largely disappearing from view during Beijing¡¯s crackdown on tech.?He retreated from the spotlight in late 2020 after his criticism of Chinese regulators culminated in the cancellation of a blockbuster $37bn initial public offering by Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba.
The Tokyo College was founded in 2019 to serve as an interface between the University of Tokyo and overseas researchers and research institutions. Its research focuses on themes such as the digital revolution; Japan viewed from within and outside, the humanities in 2050 and the value of life.
Ma founded the e-commerce firm Alibaba in the 1990s and was once China's richest man.He is well known in Japan as a friend of Masayoshi Son, the founder and chief executive of SoftBank Group Corp.
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