The Conductor - meet Aime Largado

As Head of Customer Service for Southeast Asia and the Middle East at Wilhelmsen Ships Service, Aime Largado thrives on the challenge of setting the rhythm and keeping people, priorities and operations in step across a diverse and fast-moving territory. 

Aime Largado is a devoted Coldplay fan. She queued, sang along and soaked up every minute of seeing the band live in Singapore in 2024. But there's one detail that still makes her laugh – and it neatly captures the way she's always lived her life slightly off-centre from expectation.

“Statistically, about 95% of Filipinos can sing,” she says. “I belong to the other five percent. I really love music but I still don’t understand why I can’t hit a single note!”

It's a small admission but a telling one. Long before she'd built a career spanning engineering, operations, customer leadership and regional management, she'd already learned what it meant to follow a path that didn't quite fit the mould – and to be comfortable doing things her way. 

Aime with her husband Harry, winning together 

Questioning norms 

Aime grew up in Oriental Mindoro, an agricultural province on Mindoro Island in the Philippines. Her childhood was shaped by farming, rice fields and banana plantations, with her family managing their own land. “Those early years really grounded me,” she says. “The island gave me a strong foundation right through secondary school.”

Leaving for university in Manila opened up a much wider world. “That was when I really started to spread my wings. Moving away helped me become more independent and confident.”

From an early age, Aime was restless in the face of convention. Her parents placed a strong emphasis on education but still had clear ideas about what a daughter’s future should look like. Aime, however, was already questioning those assumptions.

“I’ve always been curious,” she says. “Even as a child, I was asking why things had to be done a certain way, and whether there might be another approach.”

She never saw herself reflected in traditional expectations of femininity. Independence mattered more than fitting in. “I was definitely not a Barbie kind of girl,” she jokes. “I was more interested in logic, problem-solving and the kinds of things that were usually seen as ‘for boys’.” 

Engineering calls 

Choosing engineering was not a straight line – nor an easy negotiation at home. “It wasn’t something I'd mapped out from the beginning. I didn’t grow up saying, ‘I want to be an engineer'," she says.

Her initial ambition was electronic and communications engineering. She passed entrance exams at several universities but narrowly missed the score required for that discipline. Computer engineering became the alternative path. “I’ve always enjoyed problem-solving,” she says. “I was interested in technical things and understanding how systems work.” 

It proved a decisive foundation, even as her career later moved well beyond purely technical roles. 

A career built through curiosity 

After graduating, Aime spent several years in Manila building hands-on experience. She began as a technical sales engineer, working closely with top-tier clients and designing large-scale data centre installations. “That gave me a really strong technical base. I was involved in everything from system configuration to full building layouts.”

She later moved into software development, working closer to systems and applications. But before long, her curiosity pulled her further upstream. “I started becoming more interested in how decisions were actually being made,” she says. “Not just how systems worked, but how data influences outcomes.”

That took her into manufacturing, operations and supply chain roles, focused on process improvement. From there she moved into commercial functions, pricing and analytics – and eventually into customer service where coordination, timing and judgement matter as much as technical insight. 

Moving countries, changing worlds 

Aime in Singapore, standing proudly with the flag 

In 2010, Aime joined Wilhelmsen and relocated to Singapore – a move she still describes as the biggest leap of her life. “It wasn’t just a new job,” she says. “It was a new country, culture and no familiar faces, so I really had to rely on myself.”

She was also entering an industry she barely knew. “At that point, my main association with maritime was that a lot of Filipinos worked at sea.”

What she discovered instead was a complex, global and traditionally male-dominated industry – exactly the kind of environment she found motivating. “Maritime was another challenge. And challenges energise me,” she says. Singapore gradually became home. “The pace, the discipline, it suits me. But at the same time, the Philippines will always be home emotionally.”  

Leading across cultures and distance 

Aime with her team, surrounded by people who energise her

Today, Aime manages a team of 20-plus based in Singapore, Mumbai and Dubai – a role that requires constant calibration across time zones, cultures and priorities. “This is the role where all the experience I’ve built over the years finally connects,” she says. A good day isn't a quiet one. “It’s when the team is fully engaged – talking to customers, solving real problems, working across functions,” Aime says. “When customers tell us they feel supported, that’s a high-five day for me.”

The harder days are equally instructive. “They usually happen when priorities aren’t clear or communication breaks down. That’s when leadership really matters.” 

For her, good leadership is less about authority and more about responsibility. It means stepping in early to restore clarity and alignment – setting the tempo, regrouping and making sure teams aren't working in silos. “When things get difficult, that’s not the moment to step back,” she says. “It's when people need clarity most.” 

From the outside, customer service can sometimes look reactive – responding when issues arise. Aime sees it differently. “When things run smoothly, it can look simple,” she says. Much of the work, she explains, takes place earlier and quietly: aligning priorities, keeping communication flowing and preventing problems before they surface. Just like rehearsals ahead of the concert. 

Aime welcoming London Business School students to the office

Physical fitness boosts mental acuity 

Outside work, Aime’s intensity is reflected in how she structures her life. Her husband, Harry, also a Filipino, works in hospitality – another people-driven industry shaped by pace and pressure. “We understand each other’s worlds pretty well,” she says. Physical movement plays a central role in how she maintains balance. Once a week, she cycles a full 100-kilometre loop around Singapore – which she started doing during Covid. “That long ride really clears my head. It helps me reset and come back sharper.” 

Aime when things get hard, she pushes harder with a smile 

Over time, that endurance mindset extended further into a shared interest in competitive endurance sport. The couple now regularly compete in HYROX events. “I enjoy the discipline and mental focus,” she says. “It pushes me.”  

That same energy carries into Aime's family life and supporting the couple's daughter, Sophia, who is 13 and thriving, with a talent for planning that mirrors her Mum's. On Aime's desk sits a simple Post-it note with a reminder she returns to daily: Live and lead with no regrets. “It reminds me to take responsibility, even when things are difficult,” she says. "That's something I try to teach Sophia, too."

In work and in life, Aime has never been content to simply follow the score. Whether setting direction for her team or finding her own rhythm slightly off-centre from expectation, she continues to focus on what matters most – keeping things moving, in time and doing what’s right when it counts. 

Aime was interviewed by Roddy Craig