Regina Ip a mentor to her fellow HK students at Stanford

Niki Law

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee received star treatment from Hong Kong students at Stanford University and became a mentor to many of her fellow pupils, according to one of the former security chief's friends.

'Regina is a public figure and naturally enjoys a certain amount of celebrity status,' said Terrya Choi Sou-cheng, who is studying for a PhD in engineering at the university. 'Her presence on many occasions always livened up the gatherings.'

Mrs Ip, who returned to Stanford as a graduate student in 2003 and wrote her thesis on Hong Kong's democratic development, also took part in lively political debate with her fellow students.

'I was most impressed by her candour, [which] shone through in her postings through the student association's mailing list, where members discuss topics [including] candidates for the new chief executive,' said Ms Choi, although Mrs Ip has yet to publicly back anyone for the job and is seen as a potential candidate herself.

Mrs Ip gave a talk to the university's Hong Kong Student Association in June 2004, about job prospects in the shipping and science and technology industries in Hong Kong and on the mainland.

But Stanford also held some bittersweet memories for Mrs Ip, who said she spent the 'happiest years' of her life there with her late husband. Sammy Ip Man-ho died in late 1997 after a lengthy battle with cancer, aged 62.

In 1986 Mrs Ip, accompanied by the husband she married in 1981, went to Stanford to study for an MBA under the Sloan Programme in the graduate school of business.

Ms Choi said she discussed reading and watched movies such as Brokeback Mountain with Mrs Ip over a cup of tea or dim sum. '[But] I am particularly grateful to her for sharing with me her reminiscences about her late husband,' Ms Choi said. 'I was especially touched by her expressions of love for him, which were so real and deep as she lived up to the wedding vows.

'Regina will always be a precious friend I would confide in and seek advice from, and I know I could be myself with her,' she said.