Seven things to know about Alibaba's new president, Michael Evans

You may have already known this news. On August 4, former Goldman Sachs Vice Chairman Michael Evans joined Alibaba Group as president and executive director, taking full responsibility for global business and reporting to Alibaba Group CEO Zhang Yong (nicknamed Xiaoyaozi).

You may also be familiar with his resume: Since joining Goldman Sachs in 1993, Evans has served as partner, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs, head of emerging markets, chairman of Asia, and senior executive of the investment banking and securities department.

However, there are still some things you may not know:

(1) Before joining Goldman Sachs, he was a world champion.

In China, a country with a national system, athletes, except for a few elites like Li Ning, almost always work in sports-related careers for their entire lives after retirement.

However, Evans was not, as he won the gold medal in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as a member of the Canadian men's canoeing team. This was almost the same time as he entered the financial industry, nine years earlier than he entered Goldman Sachs.

We have no way of knowing what influence kayaking has on Evans. But at Goldman Sachs, Evans' character is described as a "fighter." A former partner of Goldman Sachs once said, "If Goldman Sachs is a gladiator league, then Evans must be the ultimate gladiator."

(2) He was once one of the most talented executives at Goldman Sachs, but he failed to rise to the top because he was too high-profile.

As you may know, in 2010, Evans was considered a strong contender to succeed Lloyd Blankfein as CEO of Goldman Sachs, and he himself was considered one of the most talented executives at Goldman Sachs.

However, unexpectedly, Evans not only failed to succeed Blankfein, but even retired in 2013.

How did things go wrong? The reasons are complicated. One theory is that Blankfein formed his own small circle during his tenure at Goldman Sachs (although he strongly denied it), and the people in the small circle obeyed his orders. But Evans was neither part of this small circle nor could he get the support of the board of directors, so he naturally lost in the final power struggle.

Another theory was put forward by William D. Cohan, the author of House of Cards, The Last Tycoon, and How Goldman Sachs Ran the World: Evans lost because of his excessive high profile. Within Goldman Sachs, Evans has always regarded himself as the successor to the CEO, and when he served as co-chair of the business standards committee, he has been promoting a view that Blankfein and potential successor Gary Cohn, although they made a lot of money for the company, violated the company's principles. Considering Goldman Sachs' reputation after the financial crisis, this is not only a lack of loyalty to the boss, but it can even be considered an act of "forcing the palace." Therefore, it is only natural that he lost in the end.

PS: If what Cohan said is true, the Evans incident reminds us of many things with "Chinese characteristics", such as Chong'er and Shensheng, Jiancheng and Shimin, Yinzhen and Yinzhen, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi... and even the recent rumors about the power struggle within Alibaba.

(3) His “Business Standards Committee” was once a key factor in the revival of Goldman Sachs’ investment banking business.

Although the high profile of the Business Standards Committee prevented Evans from becoming CEO, no one can deny that during his tenure as head of the Business Standards Committee, the organization played an important role in the revival of Goldman Sachs' investment banking business after the "financial crisis."

The Business Standards Committee was established during Goldman Sachs' darkest period: stock price declines, scandals, and lawsuits one after another... Blankfein emphasized in recalling this period that "this was one of the worst and most painful days in my career."

More importantly, the various problems exposed by Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis caused investors to lose confidence in it for a time.

After the SEC filed a civil lawsuit against Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs finally learned from its mistakes and established a "Business Standards Committee". There are 5 groups whose functions include: checking the company's responsibilities to customers, discovering and managing conflicts of interest, and improving the company's financial reporting and public disclosure. Check whether the complex products sold by the company are compliant and employee training. The first important thing was to release a 63-page internal inspection report, which disclosed the profits generated by proprietary trading and investment. This was the first time Goldman Sachs had disclosed relevant information in 142 years. In addition, there were 39 measures to help improve the company's image in front of customers and the public. In addition, he took back the power of traders who were criticized during the financial crisis to underwrite complex financial derivatives transactions and handed it over to the investment banking department. These measures successfully "stopped the bleeding" of Goldman Sachs' shaky reputation and contributed greatly to the revival of Goldman Sachs' investment banking business.

(4) He was once the “King of Asia” at Goldman Sachs and has close ties with China. Many of the overseas strategies of large state-owned enterprises that you have heard of are related to him.

What do familiar names like China Mobile, PetroChina, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Ping An Insurance, and ZTE have in common?

That is, they have all worked with Evans.

Evans, who served as the chairman of Asia at Goldman Sachs' Hong Kong headquarters for nearly a decade, was known as "Bethune". He helped many large Chinese companies complete their historic IPOs to go out of China and raise funds in the global market. Under his leadership, Goldman Sachs also made long-term investments in many Chinese companies, including investments in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Shuanghui Group, Ping An of China, Taikang Life Insurance and other groups, and the joint venture to establish Goldman Sachs Gaohua Securities. A series of capital operations made Goldman Sachs the international investment bank with the deepest involvement in the Chinese market.

(5) He is a representative of a series of entrepreneurs and professional managers from “Wall Street to Silicon Valley”.

Is Evans the only executive to have made the jump from finance to tech? No.

Wall Street and Silicon Valley used to be the two major targets of business elites in the United States and even the world. But now, with the development of mobile Internet, Wall Street elites are increasingly favoring job opportunities in the technology circle.

For example:

Twitter's Chief Financial Officer Anthony Noto also came from Goldman Sachs and held the same job as Goldman Sachs.

Ruth Porat, who became Google's chief financial officer in March, was the head of Morgan Stanley's finance department and had worked on Wall Street for 28 years.

Last month, Airbnb poached Blackstone CFO Laurence Tosi to become its head of financing.

(6) This is not the first time he has worked with Alibaba.

You might think that it was not until today that Alibaba decided to hire Evans as president?

In fact, Evans had already served as Alibaba's independent director as early as when the company went public last year.

In September 2014, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank became one of the six major underwriters of Alibaba's listing in the United States in 2014, and witnessed Alibaba's listing as the largest IPO in the history of U.S. stocks.

On October 29, 1999, Goldman Sachs, together with a group of investment banks including Fidelity Investments, invested US$5 million in Alibaba, of which US$3.3 million was invested by Goldman Sachs, effectively solving Alibaba's urgent need for funds in its early days.

(7) He has eight children, so he needs a big house.

He and his wife Lisa Evans each had three children before they got married, and two more after they got married. So Evans now has 3+3+2=8 children. What a big family.

Perhaps because of his children, Evans attaches great importance to living conditions, even to the point of spending a lot of money.

In New York, Evans once spent $27 million to buy the entire 16th floor of a duplex apartment on Fifth Avenue (about the same price as a courtyard house in Beijing). Opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This floor has a total of 14 rooms, covering an area of ​​8,360 square feet (about 776 square meters) and a 10-foot ceiling. There are six master bedroom suites and nine and a half bathrooms. However, he also has a duplex penthouse with an area of ​​5,000 square feet (about 464 square meters) adjacent to Central Park West. In addition, he has multiple properties in New York.