Alibaba Group's 'most influential woman' to get $5 bn richer on Ant IPO

Lucy Peng has been dubbed Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s most influential woman.

The co-founder of the e-commerce giant rarely speaks in public and is little known outside of China, but over the past two decades she’s played a key role guiding Jack Ma’s empire. Peng, 47, helped set up Alibaba’s human-resources department, was Ant Group Co.’s chief executive officer and is now executive chairwoman of Lazada Group SA, the Southeast Asian e-commerce platform.

The former finance teacher is also emerging as one of the wealthiest people within the wildly successful Alibaba ecosystem and one of the richest women on the