Lam Woon-kwong

Lam Woon-kwong GBS JP (born 19 April 1951) is a Hong Kong politician and civil servant who has worked as convenor of the Executive Council and chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Lam Woon-kwong
林煥光
Convenor of the Non-Official Members of the Executive Council
In office
1 July 2012 – 30 June 2017
Chief ExecutiveLeung Chun-ying
Preceded byRonald Arculli
Succeeded byBernard Chan
Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission
In office
1 February 2010 – 31 March 2013
Preceded byzh:Raymond Tang
Succeeded byYork Chow
Director of the Chief Executive's Office
In office
1 July 2002 – 6 January 2005
Chief ExecutiveTung Chee-hwa
Preceded byDavid Lan
Succeeded byJohn Tsang
Personal details
Born (1951-04-19) April 19, 1951
Alma materzh:Wellington College
Queen's College
University of Hong Kong
Harvard University
In this Chinese name, the family name is Lam.
Lam Woon-kwong
Traditional Chinese林煥光
Simplified Chinese林焕光

Early years

Lam Woon-kwong was born in 1951.[1] He graduated from the Social Sciences Faculty of the University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Economics and Sociology. He has two master's degrees: in Public Administration from Harvard University and in Buddhist Studies from the University of Hong Kong.[2]

In government

Lam benefited from a meteoric rise midway through his civil service career (around the time of the Handover) due to the early retirement of many of Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service 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 in 1995, even he admitted his surprise.[3]

Lam served as Director of Education for just nine months. He was appointed Secretary for the Civil Service by Governor Patten in 1996, the first to be promoted, rather than transferred, into the role.[3] While there, he pushed through reforms despite significant opposition from unions.[1] He was Secretary for Home Affairs from July 2000 to June 2002.

Lam became Director of the Chief Executive's Office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for Tung Chee Hwa in July 2002.[4] In January 2005, women's magazine Sudden Weekly (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.[5][6] 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".[7]

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, despite public concern at a possible conflict of interest, he retained his position as Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission.[8] He was known for publicly disagreeing with Leung on occasion.[9]

A HKU poll in 2016 rated him the most popular member of the Executive Council.[10]

Other activities

For the 2008 Olympic Games, he was chief executive officer of Olympic Equestrian Events (Hong Kong).[8] He is a governor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society.[8]

Lam has been a regular commentator at the South China Morning Post since 2012.[11]

Awards

References
  1. Chan Ming-kou; Lo Shiu-hing, Sonny (2010). The A to Z of the Hong Kong SAR and the Macao SAR. p. 151. ISBN 9780810876330. Retrieved 1 July 2017. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  2. "Exco bio". Archived from the original on 2014-04-27. Retrieved 2012-08-23.
  3. The Civil Service in Hong Kong: Continuity and Change page 94. ISBN 9622094589. Ahmed Shafiqul Huque, Grace OM Lee, Anthony BL Cheung. 1 July 1998. Hong Kong University Press. Google Books. Retrieved 2017-07-02.
  4. WK Lam named equal opportunities chief news.gov.hk 13 January 2010
  5. Leung, Ambrose (2005-01-07). "Tung's top aide resigns over Tokyo photos with female friend". South China Morning Post. p. EDT 1. Retrieved 2017-05-11.
  6. Yau, Cannix (2005-01-08). "Lam's exit 'fresh blow to Tung'". The Standard. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
  7. "Statement by Director of the Chief Executive's Office". 2005-01-06. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
  8. Bio for HK Philharmonic Society
  9. Ng, Joyce (17 January 2016). "Executive Council convenor Lam Woon-kwong defends One Belt, One Road moves". South China Morning Post. Alibaba. Retrieved 11 May 2017. '"One Belt, One Road" is very important to Hong Kong,' Lam, who is known for occasionally breaking ranks with Leung, sided with him on the issue in an interview with Cable TV.
  10. Cheung, Karen (10 March 2016). "Equality commission convenor Lam Woon-kwong most popular Exco non-official member - poll". Hong Kong Free Press. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  11. "Lam Woon-Kwong". South China Morning Post (list of works). Alibaba. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
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