Alibaba pins US growth hopes on Goldman's China deal-maker

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is hoping a Canadian Olympic gold medalist once tipped to be the next chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc will help make it big in the United States.

Michael Evans, who turns 58 this month, retired from the US investment bank in 2013, having forged a reputation as one of the most prolific deal-makers in Alibaba's native China during a seven-year stint in Hong Kong between 2004 and 2011.

Now he is tasked with leading the e-commerce giant's expansion outside its homeland, an assignment that will be particularly tough in the US given regulators' sometimes hostile attitude to Chinese firms buying US technology assets.