Mala Rajo Sathian is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies and the founding coordinator of the Thai studies programme, both at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. She previously held visiting research affiliations at Prince of Songkla University, Pattani campus, Thailand, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, US. Her areas of research include Thailand, south Thailand and north Malaysia, relating to ethnicity and marginalisation, diasporas, conflict, governance and histories of nation building. Her publications include: Siamese in Malaysia: Beyond sixty years of heritage (2018) and various articles and chapters on ethnic minorities, identity, conflict and methodology in area studies.  She hopes to advance a message of peace and tolerance towards minority communities living in multicultural Southeast Asia through her research and writing.

Assoc. Prof. Sr Dr. Saipol Bari Abd Karim is a Consultant Quantity Surveyor (CQS), registered with the Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia (BQSM). Sr Dr. Saipol specialises in project, risk, and value management. He is the Deputy Dean (Student Affairs) at the Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Malaya. Previously, he headed the Department of Quantity Surveying from May 2019 to May 2021 and was formerly the programme coordinator for the Master of Project Management for 4 years. Besides lecturing and conducting research, Sr Dr. Saipol is also a quantity surveying consultant and a risk management consultant for several building and infrastructure projects through UM Consult, a professional consultancy company under the university's umbrella. Besides that, he has also been appointed as a member of the UM's advisory committee for the MRT3 project. Other appointments at the university include Deputy Protem Head of Centre of Excellence for Future Sustainable Energy, Chairman of Student's Disciplinary Committee, Member of Student's Disciplinary Appeal Committee for UM's Board of Directors, Associate Member of Risk and Business Continuity Management Office, Variation Order and Extension of Time committees and Consultant's Evaluation Panel for projects managed by the university. Sr Dr. Saipol has also been appointed as UM's focal person for the PETRONAS-UM Collaboration with Higher Education Strategic Initiatives (CHESS) for all activities and programmes involving the university. Before joining UM in 2005, he gained industry experience involving projects related to civil engineering, building, and oil and gas sectors upon graduating from Universiti Malaya with a Bachelor of Quantity Surveying (Hons) in 1999. He joined Gamuda Berhad as a quantity surveyor and moved to MCM Associates, a professional quantity surveying consultancy firm. Later, his career progressed as a contract administrator at Dialog Group Berhad, serving the oil and gas sector. Throughout his industry career, he was responsible for managing contracts with many clients such as SPRINT Highway, Malaysia Airlines Bhd., UiTM, PWD Malaysia, DBKL, PETRONAS, Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Malaysian Oxygen, MLNG, Halliburton, Pertamina Indonesia, and Conoco Phillips. Sr Dr. Saipol has brought significant contributions to the academic field. He developed his research interest in the area of value engineering and value management during his undergraduate years. He became one of the founding members of the Institute of Value Management Malaysia (IVMM) in 2000. His passion for value management continues in the UK, where he continued his research in the same area, integrating it with risk management. Other organisations and researchers have also referenced his risk and value management integration research article. Sr Dr. Saipol completed his PhD in Business Administration from Manchester Business School, UK, majoring in project management and researching project risk management implementation by major engineering projects in the UK. He studied various best practices in managing risks for projects in construction, railways, aviation, nuclear power, oil and gas, mining, and the defence industries. He published a book entitled Project Risk Management- Principles and Procedures through UM Press, which is one of the outputs of this research. Sr Dr. Saipol was one of the pioneering teams in setting up the generic Master of Project Management programme in 2007. The programme is now fully accredited by the Global Accreditation Center, Project Management Institute, USA. It is ranked No. 1 in Malaysia and in the top 10 in Far East Asia for the innovation and project management category by Eduniversal since 2019. Additionally, Sr Dr. Saipol has successfully introduced a new subject called value and risk management for both the Bachelor of Quantity Surveying and Master of Project Management programmes at UM since 2016. Other QS programmes in Malaysia have also referenced and implemented such an idea. His recent book on project risk management has been used as the primary reference for these programmes and is also being referred to by others. Several organisations have also invited Sr Dr. Saipol to contribute his value and risk management expertise. He was given the opportunity by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Prime Minister’s Department, to be part of the value management team for a government project. His MSc research findings on the integrated risk and value management (IRVM) framework have sparked the interest of the Public Works Department, Malaysia, in how it can be implemented to improve PWD’s projects. He was involved in risk management workshops for several projects and has led the project risk management consultancy team with UM Consult for a privatised highway project. He has also assisted UM’s risk management team in formulating its risk management guidelines, which the university recently introduced. The Honourable Minister of Works Malaysia has appointed Sr Dr. Saipol as the Board Member, Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia (BQSM) for the 2021/2023 session, where BQSM President also appointed him as the Chair of the QS Accreditation Council (QSAC) as well as a Member of the Registration and Qualification Committee. Before this appointment, he was actively serving BQSM for various committees and activities. He was also appointed by the Higher Education Director General, Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) as a permanent representative for the Early Screening Meeting (MSA) and Higher Education Committee (JPT) with the Department of Higher Education for the 2021/2022 session. He has been actively involved with IVMM since 2001, promoting and educating VM, and was elected a Fellow of IVMM in 2017. He has served as a Council Member for many years. He contributed to developing the National VM Manual and the VM Competencies Standard published by IVMM. He was elected as one of the QS Division committee members of the Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (RISM) for the 2020/2021 session and elected as a Fellow of RISM in 2022. He has served the Building Cost Information Center (BCIC), the Education and Accreditation Board (AEB), the accreditation panel for the Diploma in QS programme, and the Chief Editor of QSComm; the bulletin of QS Division. Sr Dr. Saipol is currently elected as one of the Councillors of RISM, where he is tasked to chair the Partnering Universities for the 2023/2024 session. He was appointed by the Council of Deans in Built Environment to the Committee of Heads in the Construction Management area for the 2019-2021 term and was also a former Executive Council member of the Association of Construction Project Managers Malaysia (ACPM). He was then appointed by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) to the Construction Industry Standard for the National Housing Committee. Sr Dr. Saipol was also the programme External Examiner for BSc. Construction Management at Curtin University, Sarawak Campus, Bachelor of Quantity Surveying at Universiti Teknologi Sarawak (UTS) and Bachelor of Quantity Surveying at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Sr Dr. Saipol has been frequently invited to deliver talks, seminars, and training organized by CIDB, Public Works Department (PWD), Contractor's Services Center (PKK) of the Ministry of Works Malaysia, Politeknik Malaysia, Authority for Building Control and Construction Industry (ABCI) of Brunei Darussalam, SAVE International (Australia/New Zealand + 4 Chapter), Value Analysis Canada and several NGOs and private organisations.

Associate Professor Dr Rafidah Aga Mohd Jaladin (BSc. (Hons) Psych (UWA, Perth), M.Couns (Hons) (Malaya), PhD (Monash, Australia)) is a counselling psychologist at the Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya. She was a recipient of Excellent Service Award (2018) and Excellent Service Certificate thrice (i.e., 2005, 2013, and 2015) during her service at the university. She has been executive member of the International Counselling Association of Malaysia (PERKAMA International) since 2015 and a mentor for University of Malaya Counselling Association (PERKUM) since 2013. She was a program coordinator for Bachelor of Counselling programme from 2012 to 2014. She was appointed Head of Department from 2014-2015, dealing with staff, students, human resource, curriculum and more. She was also appointed as a Director of UM Family Research and Development Centre in July 2020 to 30 June 2022. She is involved in curriculum review exercises, national and international networking, as well as community works. She was also a resident fellow at both private and public universities in Malaysia for a total of six years (1999 - 2005), thus has had hands-on residential experience on student affairs. Rafidah has more than 20 years of experience as a professional practitioner-cum-educator in psychology and counselling at various work settings. She has educated and trained diverse client populations including, school and college students, corporate staff, and local communities. Her publications comprise counselling and psychology books, book chapters, learning modules, journal articles, and magazine entries. Some of her published works are Professional Issues and Ethics in Counselling and Psychotherapy (2013, 2017), Introduction to Crisis Counselling (2016), Multicultural Counselling (2015), Group Dynamics (2016), Intervensi Krisis dalam Hubungan Menolong (2020, awarded as 50 Best Malaysian Titles), and Teori Kaunseling: Panduan Pemilihan dan Pembentukan Orientasi Teoritikal Kaunselor (2022). Her research areas include multicultural counselling, counsellor education, supervision and training; and mental health literacy and counselling. Rafidah has been involved in about 30 research projects. Her current projects are funded by the Ministry of Higher Education: Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) -  Development of Continuous Professional Development Training Module based on Multicultural Counselling Competencies for Professional Counsellors in Malaysia and Knowledge Transfer Programme (KTP) – Empowering Disabled Youths’ Psychological Wellbeing for Career Development (DiY-PsychKit).  Rafidah’s contribution to society involves giving numerous motivational and mental health awareness talks, conducting short courses, sharing psychology-related topics in media, and offering counselling and consultancy services for diverse populations in Malaysia. Her love for communities has resulted in her engagement with cultural minority groups such as at-risk teenagers (RU04I-2016), urban poor children (RU013-2017N), single mothers (RU013-2017H) and disabled youths (MRUN2019-1D). Fit as a fiddle, Rafidah is also active in sports and recreation activities. She has been representing Faculty of Education and University of Malaya in Inter- and Intra-Varsity Sports Carnivals since 2002, especially in Volleyball, Netball, Badminton, and Table Tennis. She was recipient of Highest Achievement in Sports Award by the Vice Chancellor in 2004. As a certified HRDF trainer (No. 5469), Rafidah is currently looking into exploring academia-corporate training and consultation through HRDF community network.