2000 to 2003: Director of social welfare

2004-2006: Director-general of economic and trade affairs office in London, United Kingdom

2006-2007: Permanent secretary for home affairs

2007-2012: Secretary for development

2012-2017: Chief secretary

January 2017: Resigned as chief secretary and declared candidacy for chief executive election

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee

Age: 66

Education: Obtained a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Glasgow

Number of years in civil service: 28 years

Career highlights:

1996-1998: Director of immigration

1998-2003: Secretary for security

2003: Resigned as security secretary after half a million people protested in streets against a government plan to implement a national security law

2006: Set up Savantas Policy Institute after returning to Hong Kong from studies at Stanford University

2011: Launched pro-establishment New People’s Party

December 2016: Declared candidacy for chief executive election

John Tsang Chun-wah

Age: 65

Education: Obtained a master’s degree in bilingual education from Boston College and a master’s in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government

Number of years in civil service: 34 years

Career highlights:

1987-1992: Administrative assistant to Financial Secretary Sir Piers Jacobs

1995-1997: Private secretary to Governor Chris Patten

1999: Commissioner of customs and excise

1999-2001: Commissioner of customs and excise

2001-2002: Secretary for planning and lands

2003-2006: Secretary for commerce, industry and technology; chair of World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in 2005

2007-2017: Financial secretary

Woo Kwok-hing

Age: 71

Education: Obtained a master’s of laws from University College London

Number of years in judiciary: 24 years

Career highlights:

1987: Queen’s Counsel

1993-2006: chairman of Electoral Affairs Commission

2006-2012: commissioner on interception of communications and surveillance

December 2016: declared candidacy for chief executive election