Peng Zhao


Peng Zhao is a Chinese-American businessman known as the CEO of Citadel Securities. Peng Zhao was born in Beijing, China.

Education

Zhao attended Peking University and earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics in 2001. In 2006, he obtained his PhD degree in statistics from University of California, Berkeley.

Career

Peng Zhao joined Citadel Securities in 2006 as a quantitative researcher.
In July 2016, Citadel Securities announced that then Microsoft COO, B. Kevin Turner, was joining the firm as CEO. At this time a new role, chief scientist, was created specifically for Peng Zhao who was then global head of market making. Five months after joining, Kevin Turner left Citadel Securities, and on January 27, 2017, at age 34, Peng Zhao was promoted to CEO.
In 2019, Zhao was named on Fortune's 40 Under 40 list.