Donald Tsang

Donald Tsang

Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, KBE, GBM, (born 7 October 1944) was the second Chief Executive and President of the Executive Council of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2012.

Tsang began his civil service career in 1967, occupying various positions in finance and trade in the Hong Kong Civil Service, and was appointed Financial Secretary of Hong Kong in 1995, becoming the first ethnic Chinese to hold the position under British administration. He remained in that position after the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong before being appointed Chief Secretary for Administration after the resignation of Anson Chan. Tsang won praise for his handling of the Hong Kong economy both as Chief Executive in the mid-2000s and as Financial Secretary in the late 1990s. Tsang was made a Knight of the British Empire in June 1997 hours before the handover and is entitled to the style "Sir Donald Tsang" though he did not use either the title "Sir" or the postnominals "KBE" in his capacity as a Hong Kong government official.

He assumed the office of Chief Executive of Hong Kong in 2005. After his appointment, he was criticised for the government's mishandling of a number of incidents, most notably the demolition of Queen's Pier, Political Appointments System, the Leung Chin-man appointment controversy, and the Employee Retraining Levy waiver controversy.