Simon SC Tay is a public intellectual as well as an advisor to major corporations and policy-makers.

Based in Singapore, he is Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, the country’s oldest think tank that has been ranked as the best independent think tank in Asia. He is concurrently a tenured Associate Professor, teaching international law at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law and has also taught at Harvard Law School, the Fletcher School and Yale University. Prof Tay is also Senior Consultant at WongPartnership, a leading Asian law firm of some 300 lawyers and with offices in ASEAN, China and the Middle East. He currently serves on the board of Certis Cisoco as a Non-Executive Independent Director and had served on boards for leading global companies including MUFG Bank of Japan, Toyota Japan, and Deutsche Boerse (Asia), and was previously Corporate Advisor to Temasek Holdings (2006-09).

Since 1990, Prof Tay has served Singapore in a number of public appointments. At present he is an Ambassador for Singapore, accredited to Greece on a non-residential basis. Prof Tay chairs the trade & sustainability chapters on Singapore’s free trade agreements with the EU and UK. He is also a Board Member of Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, the Ministry of Transport. His previous appointments for Singapore include: Chairman of the National Environment; Agency (2002-08); Expert and Eminent Person in the ASEAN Regional Forum (2002–2019); independent Member of Parliament (1997-2001); and to coordinate the country’s equivalent of the Peace Corps (1990-93).