Yale Law '90: Joseph Tsai

Over the next several months, I am devoting Wednesdays on the blog to profiling some of my Yale Law classmates. Everyone knows about Brett Kavanaugh, but there are so many other people who are fascinating and accomplished!

Joe Tsai (like last week's featured classmate, Kathleen Clark) was double-Yale: he attended Yale College before matriculating at the law school. Of all the people in our class, Joe is likely the most successful in terms of entrepreneurship and philanthropy.

After law school, he worked for three years at Sullivan and Cromwell in New York, and then at a management buyout firm. In 1995, he moved to Hong Kong to work at a private equity firm. There, he met Jack Ma, who was floating the idea of an online international import/export marketplace. Tsai joined with Ma as a co-founder in the venture, which became Alibaba. That entity is now by far the largest online market in China. Tsai's role as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer was key to the growth and development of the new entity.

Tsai, as the second-largest shareholder in Alibaba, has turned much of his efforts to philanthropy (he is also a part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets, the Carolina Panthers, and the New York Liberty). Among other things, he and his wife provided the funding for the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale, which engages Yale students in a variety ways with support for their own innovative plans, ideas, and dreams. It's pretty cool. I love it when people use their success to leverage and encourage the success of others.