Women Leading Maritime: In Conversation with Lim Ying Ying

Themed ‘Accelerate Action”, International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025 is about celebrating the success of women worldwide, levelling the playing field to achieve gender parity, and creating opportunities for female advancement in and outside of the workplace. In the dynamic and diverse global maritime workforce today, women are leading change.

To mark the month of IWD 2025, the Singapore Maritime Foundation is embarking on a special four-part blogpost series, Women Leading Maritime, to feature exceptional female maritime leaders and their contributions toward driving women empowerment in the industry. We start the series by speaking with Lim Ying Ying, APAC Lead for Cargill Ocean Transportation and Country President for Cargill Group of Companies in Singapore.

Personal Career Journey

Can you share how your career led you to the maritime industry? Was it a sector you always wanted to get into, or one that you entered by serendipity?

Right after university, I began my career in a junior trading role for a French agricultural multinational. I spent 16 years there trading all commodities, and went on to lead the APAC trading team for raw & white sugar for six years and the non-ferrous APAC trading team for another six years. During this time, I structured a joint venture with a Singapore warehousing-logistics listed company, and served as a Board Director.

I then joined a Chinese conglomerate, and in my more than five years there I built an international ferrous and non-ferrous trading business from scratch, expanding from a Singapore headquarters to subsidiaries in Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, and London, securing significant financial lines that contributed to a substantial revenue growth of US$12 billion in 2018.

In 2019, I joined Cargill for a new experience in the shipping industry. As the Managing Director of Cargill Ocean Transportation (Singapore) Pte Ltd and Country President of Cargill Group of Companies in Singapore, I have supported transformative ideas in decarbonization and digitalization. I lead the shipping business’s commercial and functional teams in APAC and maintain senior management relationships with key customers. Additionally, I serve as a Board Director for a joint venture with Mitsui Shipping.

While my career has been centered around trading, I have made the unconventional move of changing sectors, not once but twice. Moving from agriculture to metals (both ferrous and non-ferrous) and most recently to shipping. These major moves across sectors, spurred either by changes in my personal or the business circumstances, helped me re-evaluate what was important to me and what challenges I wanted to focus my energy on.

While these changes resulted in incredible career growth, exposure, and success, they certainly were not by chance. It required great courage to jump from industry to industry—agriculture to metals to shipping—combined with deep humility to lean on the people around me and to learn these industries from scratch. Importantly, I was careful to self-advocate to retain my remuneration value according to the depth of my trading expertise.

While I didn’t know anything about the shipping industry and had a couple more obvious offers on the table, I was most intrigued by the opportunity to join Cargill’s Ocean Transportation business. While I was impressed by the visionary business leader, Jan Dieleman (President of Cargill’s Ocean Transportation business), his solid and knowledgeable leadership team, and flattered that I was exactly the candidate they had been searching for (ticking six out of five boxes); my biggest motivation for moving into the shipping sector was an opportunity that only Cargill offered me, the element of participating in investments across digital and innovation spaces!

What about maritime continues to fascinate you to this day?

Firstly, I love that you can get a bird’s eye view of macro drivers across all markets. With shipping you need to understand all industries – from real estate and car manufacturing to agriculture and mining. From having knowledge about where population growth and hindrance lie to how geopolitics play out in global trade. Even if you don’t trade oils, you still need to know where the oil movements are for your bunkering needs. I find it fascinating to see all these elements collectively playing out in the global vessel movements.

Secondly, you always need to be on your toes. There are a lot of unexpected variables in any voyage execution, even if you’re able to book in profits at the start you may still lose them by the end of the voyage. These unexpected factors range from big events such as a bridge collapse and diversions due to war, to vessel-specific events like engine breakdowns and weather impacts. In this environment, every day poses a new challenge. You never stop learning and you become adept at using your judgement to make quick decisions.

Reflections on Leadership and Inclusivity

Many perceive maritime as being traditionally male dominated, especially at the top. Have you found this to be true and has this changed over the years that you have been in the industry?

In the past 28 years of my career, I’ve certainly seen an evolution. For sure the world is becoming more sensitive and inclusive, but we’re still not where we need to be in terms of gender equality in pay and career opportunities.

Let’s split this discussion into two main fields of skillsets: commercial jobs and operational roles. When I started as a junior trader the approximate ratio of women to men was one to 20 in APAC or one to 30 in the West. Now, I see encouraging improvement in the gender balance in trading, especially in Asia Pacific where many businesses are achieving at least 1:5 ratio. Various studies show that in the western world, the childbearing years tend to weigh down a lot of female talent, who often struggle to bounce back from large time & experience gaps in their careers. In contrast, APAC-based female talents, to a large extent, continue their career pursuit more seamlessly after childbirth, as external help in the form of readily available childcare services, full-time domestic helpers and strong family support are more common in many Asian countries.

Progress with maritime operational roles tend to lag on gender diversity as there is a heavy focus on having prior vessel operational knowledge that favors ex-seafaring talents. This somewhat created a chicken and egg situation, as historically and even till today, the seafaring work environment is largely unfavorable for female seafarers and a huge gap in gender parity remains.

In Cargill, we continue to advocate for gender parity across all roles including within the shipping industry. Although Cargill’s Ocean Transportation business is not involved in the crew selection on the ships we charter, we do work closely with ship owners and their appointed ship management companies to create a more inclusive and attractive work environment for seafarers of both genders. Cargill co-signed the All Aboard Alliance in 2017, which brings together senior leaders from across the maritime industry to drive progress towards a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive maritime industry, and recently took part in the Diversity@Sea pilot with Neda Maritime using Mv. Chloe as a pilot vessel.

What can leaders do in practical ways to foster a culture that is more inclusive and that values the contributions of employees regardless of their personal background/identity? In this regard, is there anything that female leaders in particular can do to promote this process?

In Cargill’s Ocean Transportation business, we don’t just focus on gender; we embrace and recognize the qualities and uniqueness of each individual; their cultural background, their prior work experience(s) even in other industries as that may bring creative thinking and refreshing approach to their work. This helps to create an inclusive culture where everyone feels welcomed and valued.

We continuously create awareness of unconscious bias, through ongoing trainings, educational campaigns and we also equip managers to support the psychological well-being of their teams and reduce the stigma around mental health issues, through the deployment of a Team Care Program and other enriching campaigns.

We have policies and guidelines in place to support flexible working arrangements. We also ensure we pay equitably per job banding, provide equitable employment and development opportunities, and proactively work to build a diverse pipeline of early career talent.

Reflecting on the Cargill Ocean Transportation business that I lead in APAC, approximately 45% of our workforce is female, and our commercial team is gender balanced with a 50/50 split—proudly showcasing the evidence of our commitment to offer fair access and opportunities to all.

We’re also working to increase gender representation in leadership roles globally. Since 2014, the percentage of women in leadership positions at Cargill’s Ocean Transportation business has improved from just 16% to 25%. While our numbers are a little higher than the industry benchmark, we recognize that we still have a long way to go.

Over the years, how have you picked up your lessons in leadership? And what have been some enduring leadership principles that have withstood the test of time?

Over the years, I learned that leadership is not about a title or management naming you a leader. It is about those around you perceiving you as a leader. A good way to test this is to take part in a 360-degree review. It’s an effective and powerful approach for self-reflection and self-improvement.

I’ve also learned to always be humble and recognize that I don’t know everything. I truly enjoy mentoring. For me, mentoring is not just a one directional advice extended to younger mentees. Mentors benefit just as much or more by sharing their work-life experiences in exchange for learning new ideas and innovative approach to work. I’ve found that younger generations offer new experiences and ideas and are way ahead in certain areas, especially so in digital, technology and GenAI spaces. Gaining a good knowledge of the needs, interests, and aspirations of younger talents, doesn’t simply enhance our leadership and management skills but also allows us to better understand what the forward customer trends are.

If you could speak directly to younger women considering a career in maritime, or are today in the industry trying to work their way up, what would you tell them?

As a female in the maritime workforce today, you’re likely to still be in the minority gender-wise. However, don’t just sit back and think of yourself as hard done by. Rather, keep your eyes open, raise your hand to opportunities, proactively advocate for yourself, and vocalize your interests—what you want and why you feel you are suitable or will benefit you and your company. If you don’t express what you want to the decision makers, many opportunities will pass you by as the image perceived is you are not keen on the challenge.

At times, the answer received will be a no. Do not let that dishearten you; by expressing your interest, you are in a way entitled to know why. Ask and learn why it’s a no and then go after that missing skill or work on the negative behavioral traits highlighted so that you’ll be ready when the next opportunity comes around. And when it does, take the leap of faith. It’s important to note that being vocal goes hand in hand with being determined and firm on going after the new opportunity or challenge. So, first make up your mind, then put it to action.

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Who We Are

ABOUT SMF

SMF LEADERSHIP

Connect Business

TRADESHOWS & EXHIBITIONS

MARITIME SERVICES

TRANSFORMATION OF MARITIME SINGAPORE

Spur Innovation

Spur Innovation

Develop Talent

ATTRACT

ENGAGE

GROW