Who's who of Alibaba's inner circle

Lucy Peng, CEO of Alibaba's Small and Micro Financial Services Group, Alipay's parent company

Peng was named CEO of Alibaba's Small and Micro Financial Services Group, which controls the Alipay online payments affiliate, in March 2013. She is in charge of innovation in financial services.

As one of the 18 founders of Alibaba, Peng also served in other senior roles including marketing, human resources and customer services, and served as CEO of Alipay. She married Sun Tongyu, former president of Taobao and joined the founding team.

Maggie Wu, Chief Financial Officer

Wu has been chief financial officer of Alibaba since May 2013 and was deputy financial chief from October 2011 to May 2013. She joined Alibaba in 2007 as CFO of Alibaba.com and was responsible for setting up Alibaba.com's financial systems and leading the company's then IPO and privatization.

Prior to Alibaba, Wu was an audit partner at KPMG in Beijing, leading the IPO audit of several major large-cap Chinese companies. She holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Capital University of Economics and Business.

Ming Zeng, Chief Strategy Officer

Zeng joined Alibaba in 2008 and has served as Chief Strategy Officer, consulting corporate strategies. He was acting president of Yahoo's China operations from November 2006 to December 2007.

Prior to Alibaba, Zeng was part of the Securities department and Investment Banking department of China Economics Development Trust Investment, according to Bloomberg. He has been an Independent Non-Executive Director of Longfor Properties since June 3, 2011 and is Professor of Strategy and Academic Director of Executive Education Programs at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

Zeng has a bachelor degree in economics from Fudan University, master of science from Zhejiang Unviersity, and obtained Ph.D. in International Business and Strategy from University of Illinois, US.

Five of the above comprise the powerful “partnership committee," as Wall Street Journal reported. The prospectus states the committee will be responsible for running elections and allocating bonuses to other partners.

Here are the other 21 partners, with profiles from Alibaba's filing and media coverage:

Li Cheng, Chief Architect, Small and Micro Financial Services Group

The 39-year-old IT talent gave up his doctorate degree according to TMT Post, and joined Alibaba in 2005. His role in the Alipay shares similarity as architect laying groundwork for its online payment system. Cheng is believed to be one of the core management of Alipay.

Trudy Dai, Chief Customer Officer

As one of the 18 founders of Alibaba, Dai previously served senior roles in sales, marketing and human resources. She is Chief Customer Officer. Employees said she is a good mother, bringing her daughter to various internal events.

Luyuan Fan , Vice President, Small and Micro Financial Services Group

Fan is well-known for his passion for work among his employees. He is in charge of China business in Alibaba's Small and Micro Financial Services Group

Simon Hu, Chief Risk Officer, Small and Micro Financial Services Group

He joined Alibaba in 2005 as a financial talent. He previously worked for China Construction Bank and China Everbright Bank. He is also risk manager for Alibaba's SME Loan Business

Fang Jiang, Vice President, Corporate Integrity and Human Resources

Jiang is one of the 18 founders and is in charge of integrity investigation. Ma Yun is said to trust her with upholding corporate values and leading internal investigation for possible frauds.