Until two months ago, Htin Kyaw was not even a member of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD). Now he is the favored presidential candidate of Myanmar's ruling party, on course to become the country's first head of state since the 1960s who is not a former top-ranking member of the military.
Htin Kyaw has risen to prominence for one reason: He is among Nobel peace prize laureate Suu Kyi's closest friends, and she trusts him to run the country as her proxy.
Suu Kyi cannot become the president of Myanmar, even though she is a towering political figure in the country after leading the democracy movement for 25 years through repressive military rule to a landslide general election win in November.