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An elite university in Hong Kong has appointed Jack Ma, the man behind the Chinese tech giant Alibaba, as an honorary professor of business, the university said on Friday.
The appointment comes a few weeks after the billionaire, who fell from grace after a government crackdown on the tech sector over two years ago, made a rare public appearance in China.
Ma has maintained a low profile since late 2020, when Beijing shelved a planned IPO by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba, in response to a speech Ma gave criticizing Chinese regulators.
Later, Alibaba was hit with a record-breaking $2.75 billion fine for allegedly engaging in unfair business practices.
Ma accepted an honorary professorship from the university’s business school, the University of Hong Kong announced on Friday.
According to a representative for the organization, Ma was invited to share “his rich knowledge and experience in business innovation and development”.
Local media have reported that the professorship has a three-year term that ends in March 2026.
Ma has a profile on the school’s website that highlights his experience in “management and strategy”.
The same university conferred Ma with an honorary doctorate in 2018.
The South China Morning Post, an English-language publication with headquarters in Hong Kong and is fully owned by Alibaba, reports that Ma has “no plans for public lectures or speeches”.
The billionaire’s charitable organization, the Jack Ma Foundation, told the Post that Mr. Ma “looks forward to returning to campus life after a hiatus from the world of education.”
Before starting Alibaba, Ma spent eight years as an English instructor at Hangzhou Dianzi University in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. Along with a number of other influential Chinese businesspeople, he also founded a center for entrepreneurship in Zhejiang in 2015.
Hupan University was the original name of the organization, but because of Ma’s dispute with the Chinese government, the word “university” was dropped from the name in 2021.
Ma was reportedly residing in Japan for the majority of 2022 and has been spotted in a number of places around the world over the past two years, including on the Spanish island of Mallorca.
