Porter first landed in China in 1994 and, after a year of Chinese language study, fell into a six-month stint as host of China Through Foreigners’ Eyes, a travel program on China Central Television.
After studying for an MBA in the United States from 1996-1998, Porter returned to China and worked at Ogilvy & Mather in Beijing, overseeing an Internet marketing group as China’s Internet began to take off.
Lured by the excitement of joining an Internet startup, Porter joined Alibaba.com in April 2000, just as the company moved out of a small apartment.
From 2000-2008, Porter worked as a Vice-President at Alibaba.com and Alibaba Group, at various times leading the company’s international website operations, international marketing and corporate affairs. In 2002, Porter took a year off from Alibaba to travel around-the-world, during which time he spent two months riding a bicycle across China retracing the southern route of the Long March.
Porter’s career began in Washington, DC in 1992-1994 where he taught leadership workshops for high school students at the Close Up Foundation, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to hands-on education about the US democratic system.
Porter received a B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Additional studies include courses at the Beijing Language University and the New York Film Academy.
Porter is also the author of Alibaba’s World: How a Remarkable Chinese Company is Changing the Face of Global Business (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
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