After managing one of the most prolific creations of wealth in the modern world, the Alibaba co-founder will be stepping down from his role as executive chairman.

The billionaire entrepreneur stepped down from his position as executive chairman to mark his 55th birthday. Jack Ma, who used to be an English teacher, built a fortune of $41.8 billion, a sum only surpassed in Asia by Mukesh Ambani. Jack Ma’s rise from humble beginnings has served as an inspiration for entrepreneurs around the world. Ma’s adventure into entrepreneurship began two decades ago, when he was working out of his apartment to launch his business. Ma will likely go down in the history books, as his rise has also followed China’s evolution into one of the world’s leaders in technology and E-commerce.

Ma and his co-founders spent two decades building a business-to-business marketplace. That marketplace was transformed into a giant that surpassed eBay and Amazon to run one of the largest cloud computing and logistics businesses in the world. The company delivers millions of parcels every day and its cloud computing services are put to work at many businesses. Ma wasn’t even the only person to become a billionaire from the Alibaba empire, as it has created at least 10 others.

After two decades and one of the greatest success stories of the modern world, China’s most popular businessman has handed the helm to Daniel Zhang, the former CEO of Taobao and Tmall.