The chemistry between Jack Ma, the hyperkinetic Chinese billionaire, and Michael Evans, whose friends tend to describe as “low key” and “Canadian”, is unlikely to be the main reason the two struck up a friendship 10 years ago.
Mr Evans, an Olympic gold medallist in rowing and a former Wall Street executive, was running Goldman Sachs’ Asia operations and the two met for one reason: money. Goldman co-ordinated the initial public offering of Alibaba.com, Mr Ma’s first publicly listed company, in Hong Kong.
Fast forward 10 years and this week Mr Evans, who stepped down from Goldman in 2014 after 21 years, was hired by Mr Ma to become Alibaba’s president in charge of its international operations.