ASSOCIATE PROF. SR DR. SAIPOL BARI BIN ABD KARIM

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 the area of project, risk and value management. Currently, 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 also involved as a quantity surveying consultant and a risk management consultant, for several building and infrastructure projects through UM Consult; a professional consultancy company under the umbrella of the university. Besides that, he is also 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 is also 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.

Prior to joining UM in 2005, he gained his 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. He developed his research interest in the area of value engineering and value management during his undergraduate years and 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. His risk and value management integration research article has also been made as a reference by other organisations and researchers. Sr Dr. Saipol completed his PhD in Business Administration from Manchester Business School, UK majoring in project management and researched on 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 also defense industries. He published a book entitled 'Project Risk Management- Principles and Procedures' through UM Press, as 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, and is 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, the Bachelor of Quantity Surveying as well as Master of Project Management programmes in UM since 2016. Such an idea has also been made as a reference and implemented by other QS programmes in Malaysia. His recent book on project risk management has been used as the main reference for these programmes and is also being referred to by others.

Sr Dr. Saipol 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 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 on how it can be implemented in improving 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 were recently introduced by the university.

Sr Dr. Saipol has been appointed by the Honourable Minister of Works Malaysia as the Board Member, Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia (BQSM) for the 2021/2023 session where he was also appointed by BQSM President as the Chair of the 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 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 as a Fellow of IVMM in 2017. He has served as a Council Member for many years. He contributed to the development of 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 be part of the Committee of Heads in 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 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.