Born in 1946, Zhang Gaoli was an economist by training and rose up the ranks of state-owned oil firms in Guangdong in the 1980s. He became a deputy governor of Guangdong in 1988, and party chief in the economic powerhouse of Shenzhen in 1998. He then moved on to top government and Party positions in Shandong and Tianjin, before he was promoted to the Communist Party's top power organ, the 7-member Politburo Standing Committee, during the 18th Party Congress in November 2012. He is known for keeping an very low profile and rarely makes public appearances or speeches.