Alumni Success Story - Haode Li, ZLOG 2012

Alumni Success Story: Haode Li, ZLOG´12 Alumni and Managing Director at Alipay EU.

"Studying logistics and supply chain management in ZLC finally linked all my knowledge and experience together"

With an impressive career spanning global giants like Procter & Gamble, Amazon, and Alibaba, Haode Li now leads Alipay EU as Managing Director, driving digital innovation across Europe. His journey began in China, but a pivotal decision to specialize in logistics and supply chain management brought him to Spain and the MIT-Zaragoza Supply Chain Master at ZLC. Today, his multidisciplinary background—combining finance, statistics, and supply chain strategy—has positioned him at the forefront of digital transformation in the fintech and e-commerce sectors.

You started your career at Procter & Gamble in China, and somewhere along the way, logistics and supply chain sparked your interest. Tell us about that turning point. What led you to pursue this field, and why did you choose ZLC for your specialization?

I studied Statistics at my university and worked as Statistician for a few years after graduation. I applied my statistics knowledge in modeling of consumer and product research in P&G, which helped the company to design the best products to meet consumers’ needs. The first a few years of work experience after graduation gave me some basic understanding about how business realm looked like. I was curious about how the entire business or a company ran. Then I thought about to learn another discipline that could leverage my knowledge of statistics and work experience but could let me move a little from backend work to frontend.

After research, I found Supply Chain Management was a good fit for my career plan. MIT’s SCM course ranked number one in the world. As a sister program, ZLog was delivering the same level education as MIT, with shared faculty and exchange program. Additionally, ZLC’s tuitions and fees were much less than MIT’s, which had even higher ROI. Most importantly, Spain is a very attractive country with nice people, beautiful natural scenery, delicious food, and more to discover. I think I made the right choice back in year 2011.

Moving from China to Spain must have been quite the experience. What stands out to you from your time studying at ZLC, and what do you remember most about your life in Spain and USA during those 10 months?

Looking through my photos taken during my study in ZLC, almost on every picture I had smile although I’m a serious person. I feel it was the most enjoyful time period in my life so far.

I still remember clearly the scenes of the small group of elites from all over the world sitting closely in the classroom, discussing world-leading supply chain theories, and visioning innovation to drive changes. The simulation games of inventory management let us practice like in a real business, which also guided my inventory replenishment strategies and models applied in procurement and inventory management in Amazon after graduation from ZLC. The courses in business strategies and the Links simulation game we played during exchange in MIT in the US also taught me a lot. A good supply chain management strategy and efficient team work made our team win the first prize in the simulation game, which was very impressive and memorable.

Besides insightful and interesting classes, intensive homework and case studies, we also had much fun during leisure time. We formed very good friendship with classmates, TAs and teachers by playing soccer almost every week. That also made me a huge fan of Spanish team later in my life. We explored every corner of Zaragoza for amazing tapas and beer. We had countless parties. There were much more happy moments during such a short 10-month period than I could list here.

Your background uniquely combines finance, statistics, and supply chain management—an incredibly powerful mix. How did your time at ZLC help you bring all these elements together, and how have they played a role in your work at companies like Amazon, Alibaba, and now Alipay EU? We'd love to hear an example where this blend made a difference.

I think statistics as a basic discipline laid me a good foundation to learn other things easier from quantitative perspective. Applying statistical analysis in finance and consumer research areas in my work before studying in ZLC shaped my analytical thinking logic. However, studying logistics and supply chain management in ZLC finally linked all my knowledge and experience together. In ZLC, the deeper learning in Finance, efficient and collaborative supply chain management, logistics, procurement and inventory planning, linear programming, project management, and many other intensive courses indeed helped me a lot in my work later.

I still remember I successfully proposed to apply ‘reorder point” methodology to manage Kindle device’s production in factory and inventory planning in Amazon’s Kindle global team. I used Excel simulation I learned from ZLC to calculate the probability of out of stock, which impressed our leaders with very good result. In Alibaba, I well demonstrated project management capability in leading some big projects and commercial negotiation skills, which I also learned in ZLC. Even in fintech field like my current company, Alipay, our leader also ever mentioned everybody should have a little supply chain management thinking logic in daily work, such as in product development or project management. In my current role, collaborative supply chain management theory still has very positive impact when we serve clients, deal with both external partnership and internal collaboration among teams. For example, we endeavor to help SMEs to get equal and inclusive finance service through supply chain finance. I have a much better understanding about the importance and know-how with the concepts learned from SCM.

The digital payments landscape is evolving rapidly. In your role at Alipay EU, how are you applying cutting-edge technology to enhance both the supply chain and the customer experience?

In Alipay EU, our clients span from e-commerce, travel, to digital entertainment. With a deep understanding about demand uncertainty and supply chain efficiency and effectiveness, I could lead to apply cutting-edge technologies to assist our clients to enhance their supply chain and can also improve our clients’ experience, such as more accurate and faster customer on-boarding (KYC) by leveraging image recognition or screening, responsive customer service and powerful API integration assistant by using AI chat bot, instant fund settlement by adopting block chain technology, etc.

For students who dream of a career in global logistics and aspire to make a similar impact—what words of advice would you offer? Is there a story or lesson from your own path that continues to guide you today?

In my past 21 years of work experience, I have seen two typical ways to be  successful on career paths. One is to focus on one professional area and continue development to become an expert in the field. The other is to have a broad experience in multiple areas that can lead to general management role. You really need to analyze what style you are or what talents you have. Choosing the right approach suitable for yourself can help you to achieve your goals faster and easier.

When I studied Statistics in my university in China during year 1999 - 2003, statistics in China was not well-known because the application in business was very limited. However, about 10 years later, big data concept appeared. Suddenly data became so important and valuable. Graduates from Statistics also became popular. When I studied logistics and supply chain management in ZLC in 2011 and 2012, it was also an early stage concept in China. There were neither robots nor even RFID in warehouses in China. But look at nowadays how advance it is. So, like inventory planning, we can consider “lead time” in career path planning as well. Well plan where you want to be, and prepare in advance.

In business realm, I think logistics and supply chain are like human body’s vessels. They link the players in business together. If you plan to develop your career in logistics or supply chain management fields, I definitely recommend ZLC. The intensive courses and valuable alumni network will become your great assets. Even if you will work in other areas in the future, the learning of logistics and SCM can help you think optimally from a high-level or overall value chain perspective.