Peng Zhao’s Data-Tech System Drives Billions in Weekly Trades
By James Moreau | 08 May, 2025

Citadel Securities, led by Peng Zhao, leverages more than 100 PB of data to execute half a billion dollars’ worth of transactions daily, driving massive growth and making Zhao a billionaire.

Peng Zhao, 42, is CEO of Citadel Securities, a leading global market maker.  After assuming the role in 2017 Zhao expanded its presence across various asset classes and leveraged sophisticated technologies and quantitative strategies to provide liquidity and execution services to institutional clients. 

On an average day Citadel Securities executes a half a billion dollars’ worth of transactions based on decisions made by a computer platform that considers more than 100 petabytes of data. 

The impact Zhao has had on the firm’s technological sophistication since joining in 2006 has been a major driver of growth, resulting in 2024’s gross revenue of $9.7 billion.  This success has made Zhao a billionaire.

Zhao began his securities career as a summer associate at Lehman Brothers, then a quantitative researcher at Evnine & Associates. 

Before immigrating to the United States Zhao earned a BA in applied mathematics from Peking University in 2001.  That was followed by a 2006 Ph.D. in statistics from UC Berkeley.

Beijing-born Zhao is a director of the National Committee on U.S. China Relations.  He is a founding board member of the non-profit advocacy and anti-discrimination group The Asian American Foundation, established in 2021.