Zheng was born in Shanghai, China and came to the US at the age of ten. Zheng was educated at Stanford University, with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering, B.A. in Economics, and M.S. in Computer Science. He also earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. After graduation, Zheng worked at Intel Corporation and rose to Managing Director and then served under President Obama as a White House Fellow and special assistant to the Administrator for US Agency for International Aid. Thereafter, he started a financial service data firm that grew to 300 staff and 7 offices. He was most recently the Chairman of an education focused investment firm. He is the author of three books published in China that sold over 250,000 copies. He has lived in five countries, including the US, Germany, Japan, India, and China and traveled to over 80 countries.