O Lam touted as possible Alexis Tam successor

In this July 2015 file photo, O Lam (right) welcomes Hong Kong’s former Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Raymond Tam, during a visit to Macau

The Chief-of-Office of the Chief Executive’s Office is being touted as a possible successor to Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam, the Times has learned.

Insider and ex-government sources told the Times that O Lam is seen as a potential replacement for Tam by officials working in bureaus under the secretary’s purview. The information is being shared even before the next Chief Executive of Macau has been decided.

“It’s not announced, of course,” one source told the Times, requesting anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, “but it’s arranged.”

O has served in the Chief-of-Office position since Chief Executive Chui Sai On’s second term began in December 2014, taking over from Tam, who held the post for five years prior.

It is thought that the incoming Chief Executive, who will be elected in August and take office in December, will appoint his or her own aide to the role.

A former senior official said that the proposal to make O Secretary has been discussed in government circles for some time.

However, the source also said that “well-informed people” suspect Tam will continue under the next Chief Executive – along with justice and security chiefs Sonia Chan and Wong Sio Chak – for the next five years. The source said that these three were the Liaison Office’s preferred candidates.

The source said that sometimes names are released to see how the public reacts to them.

O has held the post of Chief of the Chief Executive’s Office since December 2014, and has been the Secretary-General of the Executive Council since 2009, according to her bio on the website of the Chief Executive’s Office.

Between 2006 and 2009, she was the vice president of the Sports Bureau (ID). O was also a committee organizer for the 4th East Asian Games, which were held in Macau in 2005, when she held an administrator role in the ID.

Her educational background includes a master’s in international commerce management from the American Graduate School of Business in Switzerland, and a degree in finance from the University of Jinan, in Guangzhou.