Peng Lei, also known as Lucy Peng, is a prominent Chinese businesswoman and one of the co-founders of the e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group.
She earned her degree in business administration in 1994 from the Hangzhou Institute of Commerce at Zhejiang Gongshang University. After graduating, Peng taught at the Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics for five years. She left academia shortly after marrying her husband—who would later become head of Taobao—and joined Jack Ma and other co-founders in launching Alibaba in September 1999. At the time, many of Alibaba’s founding teams consisted of husband-and-wife pairs, contributing to the one-third female representation among its original partners—an aspect for which the company would later be praised.
Peng’s early responsibilities at Alibaba involved building and leading the company’s human resources department. One of her key contributions during this period was the development of the “mom and pop” leadership model, in which a “mom” would focus on teamwork and motivation, while a “pop” handled performance and efficiency.
From January 2010 to February 2013, Peng served as CEO of Alipay, Alibaba’s online payment platform. Under her leadership, Alipay became China’s leading payment gateway, reaching over 800 million users by 2014. By the end of that year, Alipay was valued at around $60 billion.
In March 2013, Peng was appointed CEO of Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services Group. In that role, she made significant advances in mobile payment innovation and financial inclusion for small businesses in China.
Throughout 2013, Peng was frequently mentioned by the Chinese media as a potential successor to Jack Ma as CEO of Alibaba Group. Although another executive ultimately took the role, her influence within the company and the broader fintech industry remained substantial.
Peng Lei is widely recognized for her leadership, innovation, and her role in shaping one of the world’s most influential technology ecosystems.