Jack Ma to teach at Tokyo University on sustainable agriculture, food production

Tokyo: The University of Tokyo announced on Monday that Alibaba Group Founder Jack Ma will teach as a visiting professor, giving lectures on management and sustainable agriculture.

Ma accepted an invitation from Tokyo College, a new institution run by the University of Tokyo. His tenure will begin from May 1 till October 31, and his contract may be renewed annually.

His research area will be sustainable agriculture and food production.

Ma founded Alibaba Group in 1999 and served as its executive chairman from 1999 to September 2019. He previously served as Alibaba Group's chief executive officer from 1999 to May 2013.

"He founded the Jack Ma Foundation in 2014, and its efforts are focused on supporting education, entrepreneurship and environmental protection, among other areas. Ma is a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Emeritus Advocate and serves as a global board member of The Nature Conservancy and is co-chair of the Paradise Foundation," according to Tokyo College.

He has been awarded honorary doctorates from several universities including the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Normal University, De La Salle University, and Tel Aviv University.

Earlier, the billionaire was in the spotlight for criticising China's regulatory framework.

Ma, who has rarely been seen in public in the past three years, resurfaced at a school in China's Hangzhou in March.

The 58-year-old has kept a low profile since criticising China's financial regulators in 2020.

Ma was the most high-profile Chinese billionaire to have disappeared amid a crackdown on tech entrepreneurs. He recently returned to China after more than a year overseas, according to the South China Morning Post.

It added that Ma has been travelling to different countries to learn about agricultural technology, but made no reference as to why he had disappeared from public view in recent years.