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Sr Dr. Saipol Bari Abd Karim is a Consultant Quantity Surveyor (CQS), registered with the Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia (BQSM). A senior lecturer at the Department of Quantity Surveying, Faculty of Built Environment, Sr Dr. Saipol specialises in the area of project, risk and value management. He headed the department from May 2019 to May 2021 and was formerly the programme coordinator for the Master of Project Management for 4 years.

Prior to joining UM in 2005, he gained his industry experiences upon graduating from University of Malaya in 1999 involving projects related to civil engineering, building and oil and gas sectors. He was responsible to manage contracts to many clients such as SPRINT, 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 in significant contributions into the academic. He developed his research interest in the area of value engineering and value management during his undergraduate years and later expanded his network when he became one of the founding member of the Institute of Value Management Malaysia (IVMM) in 2000. His passion in value management continues in the UK where he further continues his research in the same area which he came out with the idea of integrating with risk management. His risk and value management integration research article has also been made as reference by other organisations as well as researchers. Sr Dr. Saipol has completed his PhD in Business Administration from Manchester Business School, UK majoring in project management and carefully researched on project risk management focuses in major engineering projects in the UK. He has been able to study on various best practices in managing risks for projects in construction, railways, aviation, nuclear power, oil and gas, mining and also defence industries.

Sr Dr. Saipol was one of the pioneering team in the department for the setting-up of the Master of Project Management programme in 2007 upon completing his MSc in the UK. He has contributed towards the introduction of a generic master programme rather than construction or engineering specific for which the programme is now ranked no. 1 in Malaysia and top 10 in Far East Asia for 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, Bachelor of Quantity Surveying as well as Master of Project Management programmes in UM since 2016. Such idea has also been made as reference and implemented by other QS programme in Malaysia. His recent book on project risk management has been used as main reference for these programmes and also being made reference by many other universities.

Sr Dr. Saipol’s has also been invited to contribute his expertise in value and risk management by several organisations. He was given the opportunity by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Prime Minister’s Department to be part of the team conducting value management workshop for government projects. His MSc research findings on the integrated risk and value management (IRVM) framework has sparked the interests of the Public Works Department, Malaysia on how it can be implemented in improving PWD’s projects. He was involved in risk management workshop for several projects and currently leading the project risk management consultancy team with UPUM for a private infrastructure project. He has also assisted UM’s risk management team in formulating its risk management guidelines which was recently introduced by the Global Planning and Strategy Centre (PPSG).

Sr Dr. Saipol has been appointed by the Honourable Minister of Works Malaysia as the Board Member, Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia (BQSM) for 2021/2023 session where he is also appointed by BQSM President as the Chair of QS Accreditation Council (QSAC) as well as Member of the Registration and Qualification Committee. Prior to this appointment, he was actively serving BQSM for various committees and activities. He has also been 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 2021/2022 session.

He is actively involved with the Institute of Value Management Malaysia (IVMM) since 2001 promoting and educating VM and was elected as Fellow of IVMM in 2017. He has served as Council Member for 7 terms and currently the Planning & Program Director of the institute. He was the Chairman of the BPCI2017 which was jointly organised IVMM & UM. He has contributed to the development of National VM Manual and the VM Competencies Standard published by IVMM. Besides that, he was elected as one of the QS Division committee member of the Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (RISM) for 2020/2021 session. He has served the Building Cost Information Center (BCIC), Education and Accreditation Board (AEB), MQA accreditation panel for Diploma in QS programme and Chief Editor of QSComm, the bulletin of QS Division.

He has been appointed by the Council of Deans in Built Environment to be part of the Committee of Heads in Construction Management area for 2019-2021 term and was also former Executive Council member of the Association of Construction Project Managers Malaysia (ACPM). He was then appointed by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) for the Construction Industry Standard for National Housing committee.

Sr Dr. Saipol was also the programme External Examiner for BSc. Construction Management programme at Curtin University, Sarawak Campus. Sr Dr. Saipol has been frequently invited to deliver talks, seminars and trainings organized by CIDB, Public Works Department (PWD), Contractor and Entrepreneur Development Division (BPKU) of the Ministry of Works, Malaysia, Politeknik Malaysia, Authority for Building Control and Construction Industry (ABCI) of Brunei Darussalam and several NGOs and private organisations.