Kate Forbes was thrust into the political spotlight in one of the most dramatic weeks in the history of the Scottish Parliament.
The Scottish Government's annual budget was due to deliver its annual budget on February 6, 2020.
Derek Mackay, the then finance secretary, was viewed as an SNP high-flyer. It was his job to sell the budget's contents to MSPs in a set-piece speech.
But then a story broke on February 5 that rocked the parliament to its foundations.
Mackay was exposed as having sent hundreds of online messages to a school pupil aged 16.
He pestered the lad in private on Instagram and Facebook over six months after contacting him out of the blue.
Mackay resigned and Forbes - aged just 29 at the time - was promoted at the 11th hour to become the new finance secretary.
Her smooth handling of the budget that year won her widespread plaudits and she became a key part of the SNP's senior team.
Born in Dingwall in the Highlands in 1990, Forbes spent much of her early years going between a Gaelic school in Scotland and studying in India, after relocating with her family.
She studied history at Selwyn College, at Cambridge University, before going on to earn a MSc in diaspora and migration history in 2013.
She got her start in politics by working for Dave Thompson, her predecessor in the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency, and was also employed as an accountant.
Forbes was elected in the 2016 Holyrood election, almost doubling the votes Thompson had received in the previous election from 4,995 to 9,045.
She sat on the SNP backbenches until 2018, convening the Parliament’s cross-party group on Gaelic and leading key debates on the importance of the language.
In the 2021 elections, her majority grew further in her constituency, winning 15,681 votes – 7,000 more than in 2016.
Forbes became the first cabinet secretary in the Scottish Government to take maternity leave.
She gave birth to a baby girl in August last year.
Forbes married her husband Ali MacLennan at a private ceremony in Dingwall in 2021.
However, she will now return to work earlier than expected after announcing her candidacy to replace Sturgeon as First Minister.
She was one of 15 politicians to sign a public letter urging the Scottish Government to delay its controversial gender reforms.
Questions have been raised on how Forbes’ beliefs, if she wins the leadership, would impact on the policies of her party.
Her religious faith has been a significant talking point. Forbes is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, with concerns raised over the church’s strict views on abortion and same-sex marriage.
Concerns have also been raised that her appointment could jeopardise the Bute House agreement between the SNP and the Scottish Greens.
However, she has previously brushed off questions about whether her faith will conflict with her party’s policies, including on the issue of buffer zones around abortion clinics.
She said: “I make my own decisions on the basis of what decision is right and wrong, according to my faith, not according to the diktat of any church."
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