Inspiring Women in Johnson Controls Asia: Ai Lin Yar

Ai Lin admitted she hit a major roadblock early in life. She didn't do well in her 'O' levels and was only accepted to a polytechnic on her fifth choice to study mechanical engineering. Little did she know that this was the proverbial silver lining in the clouds for her. Although she was barely acquainted with the area of her study, Ai Lin soon gained interest and found her passion working with machines and solving problems.

Today, Ai Lin leads the Industrial Refrigeration (IR) SEA Sales, Project, Engineering and Aftermarket Service team, with members across the APAC region. She is a strong believer in diversity in the workplace and sees succession planning as a critical part of her work.

1. What sparked your interest in engineering?
Truth be told, I never thought I’d be in the engineering field. I didn’t do well in my ‘O’ levels and a course in engineering at the polytechnic was the only option open to me. Even so, I was only accepted on my fifth choice of mechanical engineering.

But I wasn’t ready to give up on myself. The hands-on curriculum at the polytechnic sparked my interest to learn more. I was intrigued by the automation and programming subjects that were taught. During my second year, I had to build an automatic burger dressing with dispensing devices and a programmable logic controller (PLC) program to sequence the mechanism. At the end of the project, I was hooked!

I began to read extensively on engineering concepts and inventions. I developed an interest in air conditioning, car mechanism - just about everything mechanical. I even interned and took up vacation jobs with engineering firms just to learn more about the field and to gain exposure to engineering.

2. Would you encourage women to pursue careers in STEM, and why?
Most definitely, yes! More women should be pursuing a career in STEM, for the simple reason that diverse teams tend to perform better. Individuals from different gender, race, background and experience bring different perspectives.

And we need to get women in STEM at an early stage, say during school. Many young smart, talented girls see this field as a “male centric” career with limited opportunities for women. We need to change this stereotype. We shouldn’t limit women to what we can or can’t do.

3. Describe your role in Johnson Controls.
As the lead in the Industrial Refrigeration (IR) Southeast Asia (SEA) Sales, Project, Engineering and Aftermarket Service team, I work with members across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. I manage the day-to-day running of the functional departments to ensure timely delivery of products and services to our customers. I’m also tasked with developing initiatives to lead the team in meeting financial KPIs. As a manager, I believe in building solid foundation in our people, focusing on their personal growth and developing their leadership potential.

4. What do you like about your job? What are some career highlights?
I enjoy working with people. My team members are talented, and generally great fun to work with. There’ll always be challenging problems - but I relish the opportunity to seek out creative resolutions to these issues. I get to learn new things everyday which allows me to develop my professional skills.

One of my proud career moments is building up the project engineering capability of the IR Singapore team. The team now has the capability to build highly customized refrigeration system locally, and is able to build complex F&B contracting plant.

I led the integration of the project engineering team for both York Process Systems and F&B. This consolidates the resources for both business lines, and allows the service retrofit team to tap on the project and engineering team services.

5. What motivated you to work for Johnson Controls over such a long period of time?
I started out at York as a design and project engineer, and was transferred to the sales support and application team during a restructuring exercise. I was looking for new challenges a few years later and decided to switch gear to be a sales engineer instead. In this role, I’m selling highly customized engineering systems to customers, and work with the Engineering Head to bring the local IR engineering capability to the next level.

Two things stood out for me working in Johnson Controls: my great team mates and the dynamic working culture. I’ve been given many opportunities to grow professionally and to learn on the job. Promotions are based on merit and performance, and not dictated by gender. Whenever I’m stumped with challenges or issues, I know that I’ll be able to get advice and support from my team mates, peers and bosses.

6. How do you see yourself over the next few years in Johnson Controls?
I’m looking to continue my growth in this current role, as I see tremendous room for improvement and development to bring the business to the next level of growth. There’s also an imminent need to build strong succession for some of the critical roles within the team.

7. If you weren’t an engineer, what do you think you would be doing today?
I think I might become a personal banker. I like the idea of having my money to work for me.

8. What are your interests outside of work?
I’m a nature lover and an avid mountain trekker. I trek every weekend, and sometimes up to four times a week when I get ready for my annual summit climb. I challenge myself to trek a different summit every year, which is a great way for me to be disciplined about keeping fit. I’ve learnt to respect nature and have become a responsible traveller, learning to survive in the wild with limited resources.