From the moment she joined the Young Liberals, Gladys Berejiklian seemed destined to be premier.
But she wasn't born into politics like so many before her.
Born to Armenian immigrants, Ms Berejiklian didn't speak English until she started primary school.
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She then went to North Ryde High School, then the University of Sydney.
She joined the Liberal Party in 1993 as a 23-year-old, and became president of the NSW Young Liberals four years later.
She served as a State Council delegate and a Liberal Party staffer as well as a general manager at the Commonwealth Bank.
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First elected to NSW Parliament in 2003, she nearly lost the seat to a spirited independent candidate. In the end she prevailed by 144 votes.
In subsequent elections in the seat of Willoughby, she has won by comfortable margins.
In opposition, she was appointed as Shadow Minister for Transport in 2006, a high-profile position for a first-term MP.
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She became a top performer in the O'Farrell government, overseeing the extension of the Dulwich Hill light rail line and the introduction of Opal cards as Transport Minister.
From there she was named deputy leader in Mike Baird's government, and was appointed Treasurer in 2015, bringing the state back into surplus.
When Mr Baird retired in 2017, Ms Berejiklian was the obvious choice as the next Premier.
So obvious, that he took the unusual step of endorsing her before the party room vote.
She was elected unopposed and was sworn in the next day.
But two years on, her re-election was not assured.
Polls showed a close race between the Coalition and Labor.
But when ballots started getting counted, it was apparent she would cruise to an easy victory, losing only a handful of seats but retaining a comfortable majority.
It was a ringing endorsement for Ms Berejiklian after what had been a quiet couple of years in NSW politics.
Then came 2020.
For a couple of months it seemed like nothing would trump the summer bushfires as a greater test of Ms Berejiklian's leadership.
But the smoke had barely cleared when the pandemic hit.
Ms Berejiklian had to make the unprecedented call to lock down the state, and then to decide when to open up again.
Her handling of the pandemic last year was praised as the "gold standard" by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
What nobody knew until it was revealed to ICAC was that she had been in a "close personal relationship" with disgraced politician Daryl Maguire for five years, ending in August 2020.
It was this relationship and questions of impropriety surrounding it, that led to her abrupt resignation today.
