Leadership
The leaders behind AI Aspire
AI Aspire is led by two of the most experienced voices in enterprise AI—combining deep technical authority with decades of global business, education, and transformation leadership.
Andrew Ng
Managing Partner, AI Aspire
Andrew Ng is one of the most influential figures in the history of artificial intelligence—a pioneer whose research, teaching, and company-building have shaped the field for more than two decades. Named to the Time 100 most influential people in the world and the Time 100 AI list of the most influential figures in artificial intelligence, he has spent his career not just advancing AI, but making it accessible and actionable for organizations of every kind.
His track record speaks for itself. As founding lead of the Google Brain team, he helped transform Google into a modern AI company. As Chief Scientist at Baidu, he built and led a team of more than 1,300 people, driving the company’s global AI strategy from the ground up.
He is the founder of DeepLearning.AI, which has trained more than eight million learners worldwide, Managing General Partner of venture studio AI Fund, co-founder and chairman of Coursera, and an adjunct professor at Stanford University. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 research papers in machine learning, robotics, and related fields.
At AI Aspire, Andrew brings that depth of experience directly to enterprise leaders navigating AI transformation. His conviction that AI is a general-purpose technology poised to reshape every industry, (much as electricity did before it) has informed a practical, proven approach to helping organizations move from experimentation to lasting capability. He has long argued that successful AI adoption requires more than technical investment; it requires leadership alignment, organization-wide capability building, and a clear-eyed view of where AI can deliver real business impact.
Andrew holds a PhD from UC Berkeley, a master’s degree from MIT, and a bachelor’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University.
Kirsty Tan
Managing Partner, AI Aspire
Kirsty Tan has spent more than two decades helping the world’s leading organizations navigate complexity—as a management consultant, academic institution-builder, and trusted advisor to enterprises across three continents. At AI Aspire, she brings that experience to one of the most consequential challenges facing business leaders today: turning AI from a buzzword into a lasting organizational capability.
Her approach is built on a simple premise. AI transformation doesn’t happen in the boardroom or the IT department alone—it has to move through the entire organization, from the executive team to the front line. Working with clients from the C-suite down, Kirsty helps enterprises identify their most pressing challenges, build internal teams that can act on them, and develop the leadership habits that sustain progress long after the engagement ends.
That philosophy was forged over a decade leading executive MBA programs at some of the world’s most respected institutions—including École des Ponts ParisTech and Tsinghua University—where she designed curriculum for future technology and aerospace leaders across Beijing, Paris and Toulouse. She knows what it takes to build capability at scale, and she knows that real transformation requires more than a workshop.
Kirsty also serves as General Partner of AI Fund’s Growth Fund, giving her a direct line to the most promising AI companies in the market and the ability to connect enterprise clients with solutions built for their specific needs.
She is fluent in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Bahasa, and holds a PhD in international business with high honors from the International School of Management in Paris, an MBA from Deakin University, a bachelor’s degree with a triple major in commercial law, information systems, and accounting, and is a Chartered Accountant.
