Simon Tay

Simon S.C. Tay is Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), ranked among Asia’s leading independent think tanks and a convenor of Track II diplomacy in ASEAN. A lawyer by training, Tay is also Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Law and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and Senior Consultant with WongPartnership LLP.

Tay has taught at Harvard, Yale, and the Fletcher School, and was the 2009 Schwartz Fellow at the Asia Society in New York, where he now co-chairs the Global Council. He has served as a Nominated Member of Parliament, as Chairman of Singapore’s National Environment Agency, and continues as an ambassador-at-large. Earlier, Simon Tay founded the Singapore Volunteers Overseas (the nation’s equivalent of a Peace Corps) reflecting his conviction that Singapore’s fortunes are never detached from the world.

Simon Tay is an accomplished author of both policy and literature. His latest book, Island in the World, distills three decades of essays and commentary into a sweeping reflection on how Singapore has navigated shifting global tides. From the Asian financial crisis and US-China rivalry to ASEAN integration and the evolution of national identity. The book has been praised by regional leaders and global scholars alike as a rare work that is both historically attuned and strategically forward-looking.

Beyond policy analysis, Simon Tay has written fiction and essays that have won the Singapore Literature Prize and the Southeast Asia Write Award. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the APEC CEO Summit, and on global networks including the BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, and CNN.