Meet Lucy Peng, Lazada’s new CEO

Lucy Peng, Lazada CEO. Photo credit: Alibaba

It’s all change today at Lazada, the Alibaba-owned startup that rules online shopping in Southeast Asia, as founder Max Bittner is wheeled out of the CEO office. In his place is Lucy Peng, 45. But who is the new Lazada boss, exactly?

She’s one of Alibaba’s founders, who set up the US$500 billion online shopping giant alongside Jack Ma back in 1999. Six of Alibaba’s 18 co-founders are female.

She’s a billionaire worth a little over US$1.1 billion, by Forbes‘ latest estimate.

She now wears many hats. In addition to being the new CEO of Singapore-based Lazada, Peng is still executive chair at Alibaba spin-off Ant Financial back in China. That’s the payments business, best known for Alipay, which is said to be weighing up an IPO that’d value it at over US$100 billion. She’s also Lazada’s chairwoman.

Alipay app used in a store. Photo credit: Ant Financial

She’s going to be flying a lot. “Lucy will be splitting her time between Singapore and our China headquarters to work on the integration and expansion of Lazada,” an Alibaba spokesperson tells Tech in Asia.

She has plenty of CEO experience. Back in 2010, she was appointed CEO of Alipay, a job she had for six years before the fast-moving fintech firm, now known as Ant Financial, handed the CEO mantle to Eric Jing. In her role as Alipay boss, she turned the wallet app into a financial services juggernaut and expanded it outside China.

Prior to that, she was chief people officer at Alibaba for more than a decade.

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She’s a former teacher – just like Jack Ma. Peng taught at Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics for five years in the 1990s after graduating with a degree in business administration from a different college in Alibaba’s hometown.

Photo credit: Lazada