Lucy Peng, arguably Alibaba’s most powerful woman, deserves to be on this list for her achievements at the e-commerce giant alone.
The former economics teacher joined the company in its earliest stages just after Jack Ma — a former English teacher himself — founded the company in 1999 with just $60,000. Peng met Ma through her husband, who worked with Ma and would eventually go on to run Taobao, Alibaba’s version of Ebay. She joined as a co-founder.
When she first started at Alibaba, Peng focused on marketing and human resources. She continues to serve as chief people officer at the company and is essentially responsible for all of Alibaba’s hiring.
As if this weren’t enough she also serves as CEO of Ant Financial Services Group — the financial services company that handles all of Alibaba’s online payments — where she is leading the company on the next technological wave.
Ant Financial consists of six businesses — Alipay, Alipay Wallet, Yu’e Bao, Zhao Cai Bao, Ant Credit, and MYbank. It focuses on small- and micro- loans — areas large banks traditionally ignore — and forms part of the burgeoning Fintech industry, which is seen having massive potential, not least in China.
Goldman Sachs forecasts that internet finance loans in China will total Rmb6.8 trillion ($1.19 trillion) by 2024, representing a compound annual growth rate in the next decade of 76%.
In the mainland, third-party payment tools, mainly offered by Alibaba and Tencent, made up 76% of online shopping volume in 2013.
One of the advantages internet companies have over traditional banks is that they process millions of transactions on a daily basis. They have data and information on clients that banks can only dream of. And having access to such valuable client data will allow the Fintech industry to evolve quickly.
Fresh off of its own record-breaking IPO last September, Alibaba intends to take Ant Financial public in the next few years, meaning Peng could find herself at the helm of yet another tremendously successful flotation. A private placement this year valued Ant Financial at around $45 billion according to a person familiar with the matter.
FinanceAsia’s 2015 list of the most influential women across the Asia-Pacific region spans investment and commercial bankers.
Published as a feature in the July/August 2015 print edition of FinanceAsia, the series also presents leading women in new areas of finance such as fintech where Asian companies are among the fastest-growing in the world.
We also canvassed corporate financiers for exceptional women working in deal advisory including lawyers and accountants. In the process of researching the series, we found evidence of progress in creating more diverse workplaces in the region.
