Speakers

Ai Lin Tay is Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources and ONE Academy at Ocean Network Express in Singapore. With over 35 years in human capital leadership across Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. She drives global HR strategy, talent development, and culture transformation while championing initiatives to nurture future maritime leaders.

A Career Built on People, Purpose, and Progress

I graduated from the National University of Singapore with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1991, followed by post graduate diplomas in Human Resource Management, Compensation and Benefits. My career began at Singapore Bus Services (now ComfortDelGro) as Head of Administration, managing Human Resource, Industrial relations, finance, and operations for over 2,000 drivers. After five years, I transitioned to the IT sector as Head of Customer Service before joining Philips, where I spent 17 years in local and regional HR roles across multiple business units.

In 2015, I became Global Head of Human Resources at NYK, supporting 2,000 employees across five regions. During the establishment of Ocean Network Express (ONE) in 2017 from three parent companies, NYK, K Line, and MOL, I played a key role in building ONE globally within 15 months. Since then, I have advanced from Vice President to Chief Human Resources Officer and now serve as Senior Vice President of Global HR, while also leading ONE Academy to strengthen talent development and organizational cohesion.

Leading Across Oceans and Cultures

With more than 85 nationalities across over 100 locations, leadership at ONE cannot be uniform. We are guided by eight core values -  lean and agile, teamwork, best practice,,  challenge, quality, reliability, innovation, and customer satisfaction. Deliberately embedded from the start, these values created a shared identity.

Building Belonging and Growth through ONE Academy

The COVID pandemic heightened disconnection, especially for colleagues who joined remotely, so we launched ONE Academy in August 2022 to rebuild community and accelerate growth across four pillars, namely, communication, connectedness, learning and development, and career mobility. 

Since 2024, ONE Academy has partnered with universities in Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, and China. It has convened Container Shipping Summits in Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong to advance digitalization, sustainability, and supply chain optimization and talent development.