Ocean Network Express

Ai Lin Tay

Workforce Strategy Executive

Ai Lin Tay is Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources and ONE Academy at Ocean Network Express in Singapore. With over 30 years in human capital leadership across Asia, Europe, and the U.S., she drives global HR strategy, talent development, and culture transformation while championing initiatives to nurture future maritime leaders.

In an exclusive interview with Manage HR APAC, Ai Lin shared her views on her professional journey, the evolving challenges in HR, and the essential leadership skills that will shape the future of the sector.

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 Comfort DelGro) 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.

“Learning and contributing should take precedence over personal gain, with focus placed on the value one can add rather than what can be received.”

Our Global engagement surveys reflect this. In 2019, we scored 73 percent with 92 percent participation. By 2023, engagement rose to 85 percent, and in 2025, we sustained 84 percent with 94 percent participation. These gains show how a focus on teamwork, innovation, and meaningful manager-employee connections drives retention and motivation.

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. When social gathering rules relaxed, we introduced town halls, informal gatherings with senior leaders, and ONE Talks, a series of informal sharing sessions where departments shared their roles and responsibilities l. Social activities like wine tasting, go-karting, and creative workshops rebuilt bonds; while mentoring, leadership pathways, and technical upskilling— spanning IT and AI—supported professional advancement.

We promote short-term, long-term, and virtual international assignments so talent can gain global exposure without always relocating. 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.

AI and Automation: Redefining the World

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation transform work, HR must help employees create new value. Our midterm strategy toward 2030 is built on five pillars: digitalization, sustainability, talent, finance, and strategy. Cross-functional collaboration between Business Process and IT teams was central to automation efforts, and proved particularly valuable during the pandemic.”.

In HR, we implemented tools like Success Factors to streamline operations and free colleagues to learn and take on higher-value work, while partnerships with leaders like Google supported AI exploration; in a recent Gemini workshop, teams tested policy automation and documented analyses with Gemini, Notebook LM, and Jam, sparking practical, scalable ideas.

Beyond ONE, I work with the Singapore Maritime Foundation (SMF) and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) to raise industry awareness and talent development.

Guiding the Next Generation Leaders

Developing future talent is personal to me. At ONE, we offer internships and work with universities to co-create modules and case studies. These programs give students from Japan, Singapore, and beyond hands-on exposure to both the maritime industry and ONE. Our flagship internship program, JEWELS (Journey for Excellence with Experiential Learning in Shipping) was established to give University students interested in the maritime sector an opportunity to learn more about ONE, shipping and global field. We also run the RISE Roundtable (Rising International Skill Sets and Experience) in Japan to help early-career professionals build cross-border exposure and leadership capabilities that compound over time. Our intent is to extend our JEWELS and RISE programs globally.

For anyone starting, my advice is simple: be proactive, stay curious, adopt a service mindset, and focus on the value you can create through consistent effort, continuous learning, and collaboration.