Joe Tsai is the governor of the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association and chairman of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, which includes the Brooklyn Nets, the New York Liberty, the Long Island Nets of the NBA G League, and the teams’ home arena Barclays Center.
Tsai is a major contributor to the sport of lacrosse as owner of the San Diego Seals and Las Vegas Desert Dogs in the National Lacrosse League (NLL), lead investor in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), and supporter of the sport’s international governing body World Lacrosse. He is also an investor in the NFL Miami Dolphins and the Miami Formula One Grand Prix.
Tsai is a co-founder and chairman of Alibaba Group, a global technology company based in China focused on AI and cloud computing for enterprises and the retail economy for consumers in China. He is a member of the boards of directors of Alibaba Group and its fintech affiliate Ant Group.
Tsai is a founding board member of The Asian American Foundation. He is a member of Asia Business Council, J.P. Morgan International Council, EXOR Partners Council, BDT & MSD Partners Advisory Board, and International Advisory Council of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Prior to joining Alibaba Group in 1999, Tsai was a private equity investor in Asia for Investor AB of Sweden’s Wallenberg family. He practiced tax law as an associate with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York. He is a graduate of The Lawrenceville School (’82), Yale College (BA ’86) and Yale Law School (JD ’90).
Tsai played high school football and lacrosse at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. In his freshman year at Yale, he walked on to the varsity lacrosse team and continued to play for four years. Tsai has been a consistent supporter of Yale men’s and women’s lacrosse programs. Yale won the NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse National Championship in 2018 and was the runner-up in the Championship Final in 2019. In 2017, Tsai received the George H.W. Bush ’48 Lifetime of Leadership Award from Yale University, which honors alumni athletes for significant leadership contributions in their respective fields of work.