Peng Lei
{{short description|Chinese businesswoman}}
{{family name hatnote|Peng|lang=Chinese}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Peng Lei
| image =
| native_name = {{lang-zh |t=彭蕾}}
| birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date |44|2017|06|23}}{{cite web|title=Lucy Peng|url=https://www.forbes.com/profile/lucy-peng/|website=Forbes|access-date=21 March 2017}}
| birth_place = Wanzhou, Chongqing, China
| nationality = Chinese
| other_names = Lucy Peng
| alma_mater = Zhejiang Gongshang University
| occupation = Co-founder & CEO, Ant Financial
Chief people officer, Alibaba
| spouse = Sun Tongyu
| children =
}}
Peng Lei ({{lang-zh|c=彭蕾}}{{cite news|title=Peng Lei, the frontrunner for Alibaba's next CEO|url=http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20130117000116&cid=1602|newspaper=Want China Times|date=17 January 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529225438/http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20130117000116&cid=1602|archive-date=29 May 2014}} born 1972/73), also known as Lucy Peng, is a Chinese billionaire businesswoman. She is one of the founders of the e-commerce company Alibaba Group. As of March 2017, Peng was one of 21 self-made women billionaires in China.{{Cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/katiasavchuk/2017/03/20/billionaire-newcomers-2017-yvon-chouinard-manny-stul-patrick-john-collison/#39fbe5254f1d|title=Meet The 195 Billionaire Newcomers Of 2017|last=Savchuk|first=Katia|work=Forbes|access-date=2017-10-06|language=en}}
Career
Peng earned a degree in business administration in 1994 from Hangzhou Institute of Commerce, which was later renamed as Zhejiang Gongshang University. Following her graduation, she taught at the Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics for five years. Peng quit teaching shortly after marrying, and with her husband (who would later run Taobao, Alibaba's eBay reminiscent marketplace) joined Jack Ma in founding Alibaba in September 1999. They were one of the many husband and wife teams making up the 1/3rd ratio of women amongst Alibaba's founding partners that the company would later become positively praised for.{{Cite web|url=http://qz.com/207398/the-gender-diversity-among-alibabas-founders-puts-silicon-valley-to-shame/#/|title=Alibaba's gender diversity puts Silicon Valley to shame|last=Timmons|first=Heather|date=8 May 2014|website=Quartz|publisher=Quartz|access-date=11 August 2016}}
Her early responsibilities with the company involved managing the HR department of Alibaba, which she herself created. During this period, one of her notable accomplishments is developing the "mom and pop" model at Alibaba, in which one "mom" focused on teamwork and motivation, while one "pop" handled performance assessments.
From January 2010 to February 2013, Peng was the CEO of Alipay. Alipay became the most successful payment gateway within China under her management, expanding to over 800 million users as of 2014. As of the end of 2014, it was valued at around $60 billion.
In March 2013, Peng took over as CEO of Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services. There, she made significant progress in searching for innovations in the mobile payments system.{{cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-16/alibaba-financial-arm-to-boost-apps-as-china-net-users-go-mobile.html|title=Alibaba Financial Arm to Boost Apps as China Net Users Go Mobile|date=October 16, 2013|newspaper=Bloomberg}}
In 2013, Peng's name was frequently floated by the Chinese press as a candidate for Alibaba's next CEO. However, another executive eventually got the job.
In 2014, Peng founded Ant Financial Services Group. In September 2015, Alibaba and Ant Financial together took a combined 40% stake in Indian mobile wallet operator Paytm, placing Peng as a member of its board of directors{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/pictures/fdgk45jklj/lucy-peng-43-china/#2440af87a005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410160145/http://www.forbes.com/pictures/fdgk45jklj/lucy-peng-43-china/#2440af87a005|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 10, 2016|title=Asia Power Women 2016|last=Scott|first=Mary E.|date=6 April 2016|website=Forbes Asia|access-date=11 August 2016}} In 2016, Ant Financial broke the record for the world's largest private fundraising found for an internet company at $4.5 billion, placing the company at an approximately $60 billion valuation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/alibaba-affiliate-ant-financial-raises-4-5-billion-in-largest-private-tech-funding-round-globally-1461642246|title=Alibaba Affiliate Ant Financial Raises $4.5 Billion in Largest Private Tech Funding Round|last=Wu|first=Kane|date=25 April 2016|website=The Wall Street Journal|publisher=The Wall Street Journal|access-date=11 August 2016}}
She also served as chief people officer, the chief human resources officer for Alibaba Group for over 10 years.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-10-16/alibaba-financial-arm-to-boost-apps-as-china-net-users-go-mobile|title=Alibaba Financial Arm to Boost Apps as China Net Users Go Mobile|last=|first=|date=16 October 2016|website=Bloomberg Technology|publisher=Bloomberg|access-date=11 August 2016}} In this position, she oversaw the approximately 35,000 employees under Alibaba.{{Cite web|url=http://fortune.com/most-powerful-women-asia-pacific/lucy-peng-11/|title=MPW Asia 2014|last=|first=|date=|website=Fortune|publisher=Fortune|access-date=11 August 2016}}
Peng became a billionaire in 2014 based on Alibaba's valuation prior to its record-setting IPO.{{Cite web|url=http://www.womenofchina.cn/womenofchina/html1/people/others/1504/2389-1.htm|title=Top 5 Richest Women in World's Tech Sector|last=Wu|first=Amanda|date=22 April 2015|website=Women of China|publisher=Women of China|access-date=11 August 2016}} Following the suspending of that IPO and Jack Ma's disengaging from public appearance,{{cite news |last1=Chen |first1=Lulu Yilun |last2=Liu |first2=Coco |title=How China Lost Patience With Jack Ma, Its Loudest Billionaire |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-12-22/jack-ma-s-empire-in-crisis-after-china-halts-ant-group-ipo |access-date=4 January 2021 |work=Bloomberg.com |date=22 December 2020 |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Harrington |first1=Mary |title=Why did the Chinese Communist Party turn on Jack Ma? - The Post |url=https://unherd.com/thepost/why-did-the-chinese-communist-party-turn-on-jack-ma/ |website=UnHerd |access-date=5 January 2021}} Peng unexpectedly replaced him on these including the finale of Africa's Business Heroes in November 2019.{{cite news |last1=Pilling |first1=David |last2=McMorrow |first2=Ryan |title=Jack Ma disappears from his own talent show |url=https://www.ft.com/content/a91dfeae-da1e-4348-8212-bbfbe94d93bd |access-date=4 January 2021 |work=www.ft.com |date=1 January 2021}}
Personal life
Three years after she began teaching, Peng married Sun Tongyu. She later divorced him for a short period, but then remarried him.{{Cite web|url=http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/alibaba-co-founder-peng-lei-set-to-join-paytm-board-115011900031_1.html|title=Alibaba co-founder Peng Lei set to join Paytm board|last=Mitra|first=Sounak|date=19 January 2015|website=Business Standard|publisher=Business Standard|access-date=10 August 2016}}
Porter Erisman in his 2012 documentary Crocodile in the Yangtze about Alibaba's early years, described Peng as "a funny and down-to-earth" leader.{{Cite web |url=http://fortune.com/2014/09/17/wu-peng-alibabas-dynamic-duo/ |title=Alibaba's Maggie Wu and Lucy Peng: The dynamic duo behind the IPO |last=Cendrowski |first=Scott |date=17 September 2014 |publisher=Fortune |access-date=10 August 2016}} In 2015 Erisman, who is the former Vice President of Alibaba, published a book on Alibaba's World: How a remarkable Chinese Company is Changing the Face of Global Business.{{cite book | author1= Porter Erisman |title=Alibaba's World: How a Remarkable Chinese Company is Changing the Face of Global Business |publisher= St. Martin's Publishing Group |year=2015 |isbn=9781466878860 }}
Accomplishments
As of 2016, Peng was listed as the 35th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes, #35 on their list of Power Women for 2016, and #17 on their list of Asia Power Women for 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/profile/lucy-peng/|title=The World's 100 Most Powerful Women|last=|first=|date=|work=Forbes|access-date=11 August 2016}}
In 2015, she was ranked as the third richest woman in the tech sector by Wealth-X, and the #11 Most Powerful Woman in Asia by Fortune.{{Cite web|url=http://www.wealthx.com/articles/2015/wealth-x-reveals-the-wealthiest-women-in-tech/|title=Wealth-X Reveals: The Wealthiest Women In Tech|last=|first=|date=15 April 2015|website=Wealth-X|publisher=Wealth-X|access-date=11 August 2016}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.daonong.com/g/2009en/specialreport/20090914/10769.html An Interview with Peng Lei：The DNA Code of Alibaba], Green Herald.
- [http://tech.sina.com.cn/z/featurepl/ 彭蕾解读小微金服：无线及国际化成未来重点] (Peng Lei interpretation of small and micro payments), Sina Corp (Chinese)
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1wIAs0uJ_Y Video of Lucy Peng speaking at the China 2.0 conference at the Stanford Graduate School of Business], September 28, 2012 (Chinese)
{{Alibaba Group}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peng, Lei}}
Category:21st-century Chinese businesswomen
Category:21st-century Chinese businesspeople
Category:Businesspeople from Chongqing
Category:Chinese computer businesspeople
Category:Chinese technology company founders
Category:Chinese women chief executives
Category:Chinese women company founders