Introduction
Sean Lien or Lien Sheng-wen (simplified Chinese: 连胜文; traditional Chinese: 連勝文; pinyin: Lián Shèngwén; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Liân Sèng-bûn; Taiwanese: Liân sìng-bûn; born February 4, 1970) is a member of the Central Standing Committee of the Kuomintang of the Republic of China in Taiwan. He is co-founder of Evenstar Capital and he previously served as chairman of the Taipei Smart Card Corporation, the company which operates EasyCard.
Family
Sean Lien is the eldest son of Lien Fang Yu and Lien Chan, who served as the Chairman of the Kuomintang party and was the Vice President of Taiwan. He is the grandson of Lien Chen-tung, and the great grandson of Lian Heng. He has a brother and two sisters. He is married to Patty Tsai.
According to some sources, he was born in the United States of America; others indicate that he was born in Taiwan.
Education
Lien studied law at Fu Jen Catholic University and at Columbia University School of Law. He was also an Eisenhower Fellow.
Early career
Lien served in a senior management position at GE's Asia Pacific Capital Fund II and as a vice president with an Investment Banking Group in Taipei. He is co-founder and senior advisor to the Hong Kong investment company Evenstar Capital.
Middle-Age and Political career
In 2008, Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-pin appointed Lien as chairman of Taipei Smart Card Corporation. Lien resigned as Chairman of EasyCard Corporation at the end of 2009, citing health reasons. Assessments of his performance during this brief tenure differ.
During the municipal election on 26 November 2010, Sean Lien was shot while stumping for Chen Hung-yuan, a New Taipei City Council candidate in the Yonghe District of New Taipei City. Lien's wound was minor and he recovered quickly. Lien disagrees with Taiwan judiciary's conclusion that he was shot by mistake.
On February 24, 2014, Lien announced his campaign for Taipei City mayor election; on April 19, 2014, he won the KMT mayoral primary. On November 29, Lien lost the race to independent candidate Ko Wen-je.
| 2014 Taipei City Mayoralty Election Result | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Candidate | Party | Votes | Percentage | ||
| 1 | Chen Ju-pin (陳汝斌) | Self Help Party | 1,624 | 0.11% | ||
| 2 | Chao Yen-ching (趙衍慶) | Independent | 15,898 | 1.06% | ||
| 3 | Lee Hong-hsin (李宏信) | Independent | 2,621 | 0.18% | ||
| 4 | Yong C. Chen (陳永昌) | Independent | 1,908 | 0.13% | ||
| 5 | Neil Peng (馮光遠) | Independent | 8,080 | 0.54% | ||
| 6 | Sean Lien |  KMT | 609,932 | 40.82% | ||
| 7 | Ko Wen-je | Independent | 853,983 | 57.16% |  | |