Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor (born 1957) was raised in a working-class family in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, studied at Sacred Heart Canossian College and joined the government as an administrative officer in August 1980 after graduating from the University of Hong Kong with a social sciences degree; she was promoted to the top administrative grade in September 2006. Across more than 36 years she served in around twenty posts, including Director of Social Welfare and Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, and in 2003, during SARS, she was Director of Social Welfare. Appointed the first Secretary for Development on 1 July 2007, she handled the Queen's Pier controversy and unauthorised village-house structures, and from 1 July 2012 she was Chief Secretary, leading the task force on constitutional reform consultation. On 26 March 2017 she was elected the fifth Chief Executive with 777 votes, the first woman to hold the office, and was sworn in on 1 July 2017. Her tenure introduced the Starter Homes scheme and the public transport fare subsidy and set out the 'Lantau Tomorrow' vision; the Hong Kong section of the high-speed rail opened in 2018 with co-location arrangements at West Kowloon. A 2019 bill to amend the extradition laws triggered months of protest; it was formally withdrawn in September, and the government later banned face coverings under the Emergency Regulations Ordinance. The Hong Kong National Security Law took effect in 2020 and the electoral system was amended by a National People's Congress decision in 2021. On 4 April 2022 she announced she would not seek a second term for family reasons and left office on 30 June 2022, ending a 42-year public career. Early in her career she served in the Home Affairs Department and the Finance Branch, becoming Director of Social Welfare in 2000, then Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands in 2003, and later Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London and Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs. She was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2016. On taking office in 2017 she also chaired the Committee for Safeguarding National Security, and during the 2019 unrest the government headquarters and the Legislative Council building were briefly stormed. After leaving office on 30 June 2022 she said she would spend more time with her family. Born into a working-class family, she was the fourth of five children of a Shanghai-born father and a Hong Kong-born mother.
Carrie Lam spent over four decades in the civil service and was Hong Kong's first female Chief Executive. Her tenure spanned the high-speed rail co-location arrangement, the extradition bill controversy and, later, the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, all of which had far-reaching effects on the city's politics and society. Her administration also covered housing, transport subsidies and the 'Lantau Tomorrow' planning vision, and the 2021 electoral changes reshaped the political landscape after her term.
Achievements
- 2007 · Appointed the first Secretary for Development
- 2017 · Elected the fifth Chief Executive with 777 votes, the first woman to hold the office
- 2022 · Announced she would not seek a second term and left office on 30 June