TRAILBLAZER

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Donated to charity ( 2020 )

Ranked second in the annual World ’ s 50 Greatest Leaders ’ list by Fortune , he is generally considered an iconic figure in the Chinese business world .

But life wasn ’ t always comfortable for China ’ s most prominent businessman who recently felt the wrath of the Chinese authorities when his IPO for Ant Group was scuppered by Communist Party officials .

Humble beginnings Born on October 15th , 1964 , the business magnate and investor ’ s first home was a humble dwelling in Hangzhou , Zhejiang , in Southeastern China . He lived with his low-income parents , elder brother , and younger sister , and he grew up during the cold war years that saw communist China isolated from the post-war booming economies of the democratic West .

It was an unglamorous existence that saw the young Ma - whose original name was Ma Yun , work hard at his local schools , and then at a local hotel that housed international guests .

The hotel actually wasn ’ t that local to Ma . So the story goes , the teenager had to cycle 27 kilometres there every day from his home . But determined to improve on his school-learned English skills , he stayed the course , speaking with guests whenever he could to improve his conversational abilities .

It was at the hotel that he started to use the name Jack after hotel guests struggled to pronounce his Chinese name .

Employment issues But despite Ma ’ s keen determination to succeed , good luck evaded in those early years . Teachers who knew him said he was poor at mathematics and it took Ma three attempts ( each one held annually ) to pass his university entrance exams at the Hangzhou Teacher ' s Institute - now known as Hangzhou Normal University .

Once enrolled , Ma embraced college life and became head of the student council . He eventually graduated in 1988 with a degree in English and took a job as a lecturer in English and International Trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University . However , still determined to improve on his education , he continued to apply for

16 November 2021