From Yale's Lacrosse Fields to Making Mega-Deals at Alibaba

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Yes, LGBT.

From Yale's Lacrosse Fields to Making Mega-Deals at Alibaba

By Leslie Picker and Zijing Wu Aug 24, 2014 6:00 PM ET

At 4:30 a.m. on a May morning in Hong Kong, Joseph Tsai gathered with three other executives of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. With the U.S. stock market just closed, it was time to submit the Chinese e-commerce giant’s prospectus for an initial public offering -- likely to be the largest ever in the U.S.
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While Chairman Jack Ma is the visionary founder of Alibaba, Tsai, the vice chairman, is the guy who stays up until 4:30 a.m. to execute that vision. Yale-educated and a former lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, Tsai’s job now is to convince investors to buy the stock of a Chinese company that analysts say is worth almost $200 billion, making it the most valuable Internet firm after Google Inc.
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Born in Taiwan, the 50-year-old Tsai came to the U.S. in 1977 to attend the Lawrenceville School, an elite boarding school in New Jersey, speaking hardly any English. By the time he graduated, he was conversing with no accent, and playing lacrosse.

Pink Triangle

He went on to play the sport at Yale University, where he stood in stark contrast to other players from middle-class backgrounds, said Jeff Gordon, a teammate from Long Island, New York. That didn’t stop Tsai from assimilating easily. ... “We all immediately bonded,” said Gordon, who’s now an executive at Dish Network Corp. in Denver. “I knew what hard work he put in on the lacrosse field on a daily basis. Joe always did what he thought was right, and he was a steadying presence for all of us.” ... Tsai defied conventional jock protocol by wearing a pink triangle on his chest in support of gay rights. When members of the team teased him, he replied that it was just the right thing to do.