Women in finance: Lucy Peng

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...