Lam Woon-kwong (born 19 April 1951) is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

politician and civil servant. He has worked as Convenor of the Executive Council and Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Early years

Lam Woon-kwong was born in 1951. He graduated from the

Social Sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

Faculty of the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

with a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Economics and Sociology. He has two master's degrees: in

Public Administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and in

Buddhist Studies Buddhist studies, also known as Buddhology, is the academic study of Buddhism. The term ''Buddhology'' was coined in the early 20th century by the Unitarianism, Unitarian minister Joseph Estlin Carpenter to mean the "study of Buddhahood, the natur ...

from the University of Hong Kong.

In government

Lam benefited from a meteoric rise midway through his civil service career (around the time of the

Handover In cellular telecommunications, handover, or handoff, is the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core network to another channel. In satellite communications it is the process of transfe ...

) due to the early retirement of many of

Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service The Colonial Service, also known as His/Her Majesty's Colonial Service and replaced in 1954 by Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), was the British government service that administered most of Britain's overseas possessions, under the aut ...

officers and the local senior civil servants expected to fill their roles. Promoted thrice between 1993 and 1996, Lam became one of many junior officers who rose swiftly through the ranks. Speaking to the ''

Standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

'' in 1995, even he admitted his surprise.''The Civil Service in Hong Kong: Continuity and Change'' page 94
. Ahmed Shafiqul Huque, Grace OM Lee, Anthony BL Cheung. 1 July 1998.

Hong Kong University Press Hong Kong University Press is the university press of the University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine ...

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

. Retrieved 2017-07-02. Lam served as Director of Education for just nine months. He was appointed

Secretary for the Civil Service The Secretary for the Civil Service is the head of the Civil Service Bureau in Hong Kong. Unlike other secretaries for bureaux, the Secretary for the Civil Service is filled by an administrative officer from the civil service, who may choose to ...

by Governor Patten in 1996, the first to be promoted, rather than transferred, into the role. While there, he pushed through reforms despite significant opposition from unions. He was

Secretary for Home Affairs The Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs is the head of the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau of the Government of Hong Kong, which is responsible for local issues, and the provision of community and youth services. List of office holders Registra ...

from July 2000 to June 2002. Lam became Director of the

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

's Office of the

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

for

Tung Chee Hwa Tung Chee-hwa (; born 7 July 1937) is a Hong Kong businessman and politician who served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 1997 and 2005, upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July. He is currently a vice-chairman of the Chine ...

in July 2002. In January 2005, women's magazine ''

Sudden Weekly ''Sudden Weekly'' () was a women's magazine published in Hong Kong by Jimmy Lai's Next Media Limited Next Digital Limited (), previously known as Next Media Limited, founded by Jimmy Lai, has 2,095 employees (as of 30 Sep 2020) and is the ...

'' (Issue 493) carried a story that included photographs of Lam with a woman outside a hotel in Tokyo and an interview with his wife of nearly 30 years. Lam resigned on the same evening, saying, "in view of the media report on my private affairs, I tendered my resignation to the chief executive today". He became Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission in February 2010. In July 2012, upon his appointment as Convenor of the Executive Council for the new Chief Executive,

CY Leung Leung Chun-ying (; born 12 August 1954), also known as CY Leung, is a Hong Kong politician and chartered surveyor, who has served as vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference since Ma ...

, despite public concern at a possible conflict of interest, he retained his position as Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission.Bio for HK Philharmonic Society
/ref> He was known for publicly disagreeing with Leung on occasion. A

HKU The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fir ...

poll in 2016 rated him the most popular member of the Executive Council.

Other activities

For the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

, he was chief executive officer of Olympic Equestrian Events (Hong Kong). He is a governor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society. Lam has been a regular commentator at the

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...

since 2012.

Awards

*2000:

Gold Bauhinia Star The Gold Bauhinia Star (, GBS) is the highest Bauhinia Star rank in the honours system of Hong Kong, created in 1997 to replace the British honours system of the Order of the British Empire after the transfer of sovereignty to People's Republic of ...

*2005:

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

*2009: Chief Executive's Commendation for Community Service Award

References

External links

Exco bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lam, Woonkwong 1951 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Government officials of Hong Kong Recipients of the Gold Bauhinia Star Alumni of the University of Hong Kong Harvard Kennedy School alumni Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Alumni of Queen's College, Hong Kong