Peng Zhao | |
---|---|
赵鹏 | |
Born | 1982 or 1983 (age 41–42)
[1] Beijing, China
[2] |
Education |
Peking University (
BA) University of California, Berkeley ( MA, PhD) |
Occupation | Businessman |
Years active | 2006-present |
Employer | Citadel Securities |
Title | CEO (2017-present) |
Board member of |
The Asian American Foundation
[3] National Committee on United States–China Relations |
Spouse | Cherry Chen |
Peng Zhao ( Chinese: 赵鹏; pinyin: Zhào Péng) is a Chinese-American businessman who is the CEO of Citadel Securities. Peng Zhao was born in Beijing, China.
Zhao was a student of the Talented Children Training Program at Beijing No.8 High School from 1993 to 1997. He earned a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from Peking University in 2001. [4]and a PhD in statistics from University of California, Berkeley in 2006. [2]
Peng Zhao was a summer associate at Lehman Brothers and was a quantitative researcher at Evnine & Associates before joining Citadel. [5]
Peng Zhao joined Citadel Securities in 2006 as a quantitative researcher. [6]
In July 2016, Citadel Securities announced that then Microsoft COO, B. Kevin Turner, was joining the firm as CEO. [7] At this time a new role, chief scientist, was created specifically for Peng Zhao who was then the global head of market making. [7]
Five months after joining, Kevin Turner left Citadel Securities, and on January 27, 2017, at age 34, Peng Zhao was promoted to CEO. [1] [7]
Zhao is a director of the National Committee on U.S. China Relations. [8] He is a founding board member of the non-profit advocacy and anti-discrimination group The Asian American Foundation (TAAF), established in 2021. [9] [10] [11]
In 2019, Zhao was named on Fortune's 40 Under 40 list. [2]
Zhao and his wife Cherry Chen organized a one million surgical mask donation to Chicago's first responders during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. [12] The couple also supports Kartemquin Films, a non-profit documentary filmmaking organization, in its efforts to fund filmmakers from the AAPI community through the Peng Zhao and Cherry Chen Fund for AAPI Voices. [13] The couple were co-executive producers of the award-winning documentary Finding Yingying, which was released by Kartemquin Films. [14] Zhao and Chen also fund the Victor Wong Fellowship, a program associated with Chicago's Second City, to train and mentor aspiring comedians from the AAPI community. [15] [16] Peng and other founding board members of TAAF committed $125 million to support AAPI organizations and causes at launch. According to The New York Times, it was the single largest philanthropic gift devoted to Asian Americans. [9]