Presented to the Board or a committee
Merbavane Express
Remuneration committee
April 2021–present
I present executive pay proposals, incentive plan design and an annual workforce report, attending by invitation rather than as a member.
Aileen Tanjaya · Chief Human Resources Officer · Singapore / Southeast Asia
Seeing the workforce before the headcount figure
My contribution to a board
Boards in transport and logistics usually see their workforce through three numbers: headcount, payroll cost and lost-time injuries. Those numbers arrive after the decisions that shape them. I can help a board look earlier, at the product rules, incentive schemes, rosters and engagement models that determine how people actually work. In my experience the most consequential workforce risks in this sector sit inside commercial choices: a delivery window that sets an unsafe pace, a contractor model that moves obligations without removing them, a peak plan that depends on fatigue. I would bring questions that make those links visible, and I would bring them to the remuneration committee as much as to risk, because incentive design is where pace and safety often collide. I have not yet served as a director, so I would contribute as a committee member under an experienced chair before taking on any chairing role. I know the difference between asking management a sharp question and doing management's work for it, and I would try to stay on the right side of that line.
Committee contribution
| Capacity | Committees |
|---|---|
| Ready to join | Remuneration · Board risk or safety |
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 24 days per year
- Current directorships
- 0
- Sectors
- Logistics and parcel delivery · Public transport and aviation services · Facilities and field services
- Company type
- Listed or substantial private company in Singapore or Malaysia with an independent chair
- Company stage
- Established business changing its service model, ownership or employment arrangements
The seat I am pursuing
I am seeking a first non-executive seat where a board wants someone who understands front-line employment in shift, outdoor or platform work. A listed transport or logistics company, an airport or aviation-services business, or a substantial private group preparing for wider ownership would all suit me. I would expect to join the remuneration committee and a risk or safety committee, and I would want the chair to explain why the board is adding that capability now. I am not looking for an honorary role or for a route back into executive HR at another company. With twenty-four days a year, I would rather serve one board well than two partially. My employer's consent and a full relationship review would come before any commitment.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
The IICA Independent Directors' Databank is an Indian requirement and does not apply to the Singapore and Malaysian boards I am considering, so I have not registered. If an Indian appointment were ever proposed, I would take advice on the applicable process first.
- Completed a director-development course on board duties under Singapore company law in 2025.
- Studying the Singapore Code of Corporate Governance and the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance, particularly the role of remuneration and risk committees.
- Observing how our own remuneration committee chair frames questions to management, with her agreement.
Board and committee exposure
Reported to a committee
Merbavane Express
Board risk committee
January 2023–present
Twice a year the chief operating officer and I report on serious incidents, heat and road safety, and the status of rider arrangements.
Judgement in practice
Asking what the agency model would actually remove
When our finance and Singapore operating leaders proposed moving riders to fleet agencies, the attractive feature was a fixed cost per parcel. The board-level question was different: which obligations would genuinely transfer, which would stay with us in practice, and what we would lose in direct contact with riders. I took counsel's view on the first, set out the second plainly, and argued the third on safety grounds. As a director, I would ask the same questions of any outsourcing or contracting proposal that touches front-line people. I would want to see who allocates the work, who sets the pace and who would be called to account after a serious injury. A cheaper structure that leaves those answers unchanged has not reduced risk; it has made it harder to see.
Weighing a safety gain against the earnings of the people protected
The Shah Alam overtime cap reduced fatigue and brought the hub within the legal limit, but it also reduced the income of workers who had asked for the hours. I think boards are often shown only the first half of a decision like that. If I sat on a committee reviewing a similar proposal, I would ask management to show what the affected people would earn before and after, and what they had said when consulted. I would not treat their objection as a veto, because legal compliance and fatigue were not optional. I would treat it as evidence about the design: whether the replacement pay was adequate, whether the change was explained, and whether management had heard the workers before or after deciding. Our own process fell short on that last point.
My first year on a board
My first months would be spent listening. I would ask the chair which workforce questions the board feels least able to answer, and read two years of remuneration and risk papers to see how people issues have reached directors. I would visit a depot or hub on a night shift and a peak day, arranged through management, so that my questions rest on the company's operations rather than mine. Before the first incentive round, I would ask how front-line pay rules connect to the company's safety measures. I would also meet the heads of operations, safety and HR separately, because each will describe the same workforce risk differently, and the differences usually show where a board's information is thinnest. I would keep my own employer's practices out of those conversations unless asked. By the end of the year I would hope the committee had one or two better measures of fatigue, engagement status or technician capacity in its regular papers, and I would ask the chair directly whether my contribution had been useful or simply familiar.
Conflicts and their management
Parcel delivery in Singapore and Malaysia is a small market. Many carriers, marketplaces and fleet agencies trade with one another, recruit from the same pool of drivers and technicians, and sit on the same industry committees. Before any appointment I would list Merbavane's significant customers, suppliers and competitors and ask the prospective board to compare them with its own. I would decline a seat at a direct competitor or at a marketplace that is one of our major customers. Where a lesser connection exists, I would declare it, leave the room for related items and keep a written record. I would never use pay, rider or recruitment information from my employer in another boardroom, or the reverse. If exclusions began to cover the matters for which I was appointed, I would step down rather than become a director who cannot discuss the workforce.
My independence statement
I hold no shares or advisory roles in any transport or logistics company other than my employer. Whether I could be regarded as independent on a particular board is for that board and its advisers to judge after reviewing my executive role, our customers and our suppliers. I would answer their questions fully and accept their conclusion.