Peng earned a degree in business administration in 1994 from Hangzhou Institute of Commerce, which was later renamed as
Zhejiang Gongshang University. Following her graduation, she taught at the
Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics for five years. Her early responsibilities with the company involved managing the
HR department of Alibaba, which she herself created. During this period, one of her notable accomplishments is developing the "mom and pop" model at Alibaba, in which one "mom" focused on teamwork and motivation, while one "pop" handled performance assessments. In 2013, Peng's name was frequently floated by the Chinese press as a candidate for Alibaba's next chief executive. However, another executive eventually got the job. In 2016, Ant Financial broke the record for the world's largest private fundraising found for an internet company at $4.5 billion, placing the company at an approximately $60 billion valuation. She also served as chief people officer, the chief human resources officer for Alibaba Group for over 10 years. In this position, she oversaw the approximately 35,000 employees under Alibaba. Peng became a billionaire in 2014 based on Alibaba's valuation prior to its record-setting
IPO. Following the suspending of that IPO and Jack Ma's disengaging from public appearance, Peng unexpectedly replaced him on these including the finale of Africa's Business Heroes in November 2019. ==Personal life==