Peng Lei facts for kids

Peng Lei (born 1972/73), also known as Lucy Peng, is a Chinese businesswoman. She is one of the people who helped start the huge online shopping company called Alibaba Group. As of March 2017, Peng was one of 21 women in China who became billionaires by building their own businesses.

Peng Lei's Journey in Business

Peng Lei studied business administration and graduated in 1994. After college, she taught at a university for five years. She stopped teaching to join Jack Ma and others in starting Alibaba in September 1999. Many of Alibaba's first partners were husband-and-wife teams. About one-third of the founding partners were women.

Starting Alibaba's HR Department

In the early days of Alibaba, Peng Lei was in charge of creating and managing the company's HR department. This department helps with hiring, training, and supporting employees. She developed a special way of working called the "mom and pop" model. In this model, one person, like a "mom," focused on teamwork and keeping everyone motivated. Another person, like a "pop," handled how well people were doing their jobs.

Leading Alipay and Ant Financial

From 2010 to 2013, Peng Lei was the CEO of Alipay. Alipay is a very popular way to pay for things online and with mobile phones in China. Under her leadership, Alipay grew a lot. By 2014, it had more than 800 million users.

In 2013, Peng Lei became the CEO of Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services. She worked hard to find new and better ways for people to make payments using their mobile phones. In 2014, Peng Lei founded Ant Financial Services Group. This company focuses on financial services, like payments and loans.

In 2015, Alibaba and Ant Financial invested in an Indian mobile payment company called Paytm. Peng Lei joined Paytm's board of directors. In 2016, Ant Financial raised a huge amount of money, $4.5 billion, from investors. This made it the biggest private fundraising for an internet company at that time.

Role as Chief People Officer

For over 10 years, Peng Lei also worked as the chief people officer for Alibaba Group. This means she was the main person in charge of human resources for the entire company. She looked after about 35,000 employees at Alibaba.

Peng Lei became a billionaire in 2014. This was before Alibaba's big stock market launch, known as an IPO. She has also taken on public appearances for Alibaba, sometimes replacing Jack Ma. For example, she appeared at the finale of Africa's Business Heroes in November 2019.

Personal Life

Peng Lei married Sun Tongyu three years after she started teaching. They separated for a short time but later remarried.

Porter Erisman, who used to be a Vice President at Alibaba, made a documentary in 2012 called Crocodile in the Yangtze. He described Peng Lei as a "funny and down-to-earth" leader. In 2015, Erisman also wrote a book about Alibaba called Alibaba's World: How a remarkable Chinese Company is Changing the Face of Global Business.

Achievements and Recognition

Peng Lei has been recognized as one of the most powerful women in the world.

• In 2016, Forbes magazine listed her as the 35th most powerful woman globally. She was also #17 on their list of Asia Power Women for 2016.
• In 2015, Wealth-X ranked her as the third richest woman in the technology industry. Fortune magazine also named her the #11 Most Powerful Woman in Asia that same year.