What does it take to build a career that spans Australia, Southeast Asia, and the tech sector? In this episode, we sit down with Aidan Hoy, whose 20-year career has taken him from political science studies in Perth to the Department of Defence in Canberra, and ultimately to Singapore, where he's worked across banking, geopolitical risk, and seven years at Meta (Facebook) managing elections and civic risk across the region.

Aidan shares how learning Indonesian in primary school planted the seeds for a career in the region, how a semester abroad in Yogyakarta changed his worldview, and how volunteer election observing in Timor-Leste and postings with the Australian Defence Force shaped his understanding of geopolitics. He opens up about his pivots from the public service to the private sector, from compliance to risk, and from Australia to Singapore, and offers practical advice for young Australians looking to move to Asia.

Along the way, we talk about Australia's unique people-to-people links with Southeast Asia, the art of cross-cultural relationship building, what a day in the life of a risk professional actually looks like, and why "benign leadership is debilitating." We wrap with a rapid-fire round covering favourite Southeast Asian dishes, underrated cities, Muay Thai, and three ingredients for leadership.

Hosted by Alice Hong and Hayley Winchcombe. 

Chapters
00:00 — Introduction
00:25 — Career Background
05:03 — The Singapore Pivot
06:48 — Indonesia & Yogyakarta
09:41 — Australia's Role in Southeast Asia
13:35 — Building Relationships Across Cultures
15:43 — A Day in the Life of Risk Management
20:23 — Timor-Leste
28:20 — Rapid Fire
34:59 — Leadership Wisdom
36:01 — Wrap up