12 centre spread centre spread 13 SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2019 SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2019

Jack Ma, Alibaba Last week, on his 55th birthday, Ma stepped Jack Dorsey, Twitter down as executive chairman of Alibaba, the In 2008, the board of the micro-blogging site, e-commerce giant he founded two decades unhappy with Dorsey’s management style, back, to focus on philanthropy and education. asked the cofounder to let someone else run the His farewell was like a rock concert, attended company while he remain the chairman. But in by thousands of Alibaba employees. 2015, Dorsey, then 38, returned to action at Start & Exit Twitter and has been the CEO ever since. It is not often that founders leave the companies they once started and scaled to new heights. Here are some instances where top entrepreneurs either moved away from running their companies or were forced to move aside Mike Bill Gates, :: Sourabh Gupta Microsoft Lazaridis, The tech company Research in cofounder stepped Motion down as CEO in 2000 In 2013, the when he was just 44, cofounder of handing over the BlackBerry-maker baton to his Research in Motion Brendan Eich, confidante Steve retired as vice-chairman Travis Kalanick, Mozilla Corp Ballmer. Fourteen and director of the Uber In 2014, Eich had years later, Gates also company he had cofounded In 2017, eight years to quit as chief quit as chairman of in 1984. His quitting the after he founded the executive officer of the company’s board, company came as surprise ride-hailing company, Mozilla Corporation, choosing to remain since he had managed to turn Kalanick was forced to which he had just an adviser. He is it around. Lazaridis later step down as CEO after a cofounded in 2002, now solely involved started an investment fund. series of rows rocked after facing backlash in the running a Uber. The 43-year-old is over his views foundation with his now chief executive of against same-sex wife Melinda. City Storage Systems marriage. that redevelops distressed real estate.

Mark Pincus, Zynga In 2014, founder of mobile social gaming company Zynga moved away from handling the day-to-day operations to just serve as Steve Jobs, non-executive Apple chairman of the board. However, In 1985, Jobs, a year later, the cofounder of Pincus had to the tech return to lead the company, was company after then ousted as CEO in a CEO Don Mattrick boardroom battle. left. A year later, he He went on to again stepped down start another as chief executive. company NeXT, which Apple bought in 1997, marking Jobs’ return as CEO. Jobs died in 2011.

Source: BBC, Forbes, WSJ, CNN, LA Times, news agencies