Dr Nigel Healey is Professor of International Higher Education and Vice President (Global and Community Engagement) at the University of Limerick. He is currently serving as Interim Provost and Deputy President. Prior to his appointment at the University of Limerick in 2020, he held senior academic positions at Fiji National University, Nottingham Trent University, the University of Canterbury and Manchester Metropolitan University, as well as teaching and research positions at the University of Leicester and Leeds Beckett University.

Dr Healey has been an economic policy advisor to the prime minister of Belarus and the deputy minister of economy of the Russian Federation and managed a number of multinational research and economic development projects in Europe and Asia. His current research interests are in the internationalization of higher education, transnational education and higher education policy and management. Dr Healey has a PhD in Management and a DBA in Higher Education Management and is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Professor Ghassan Aouad has been President of Applied Science University in Bahrain since November 2014. He has a BSc in Civil Engineering from Beirut Arab University and an MSc and a PhD in Construction Management from Loughborough University in the UK. Professor Aouad spent 20 years at the University of Salford in the UK and before he left he was Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation. During that time, he successfully supervised 24 PhD students, authored 3 major research books and co-authored one book, and delivered more than 50 keynote speeches in 42 countries. In January 2012, he became President of the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) and in May 2013, he became Vice President for Academic Affairs at Gulf University for Science & Technology (GUST) based in Kuwait. In July 2016, Professor Aouad received an Honorary Doctorate of Technology from Loughborough University in the UK.

Dr. Thurman, a multiple teaching and service award recipient, has extensive advisory and management experience helping a variety of global firms realize value from innovative business, operations, and technology strategies. He has held senior positions at Booz Allen Hamilton and American Express, and has served public and private sector clients on six continents. Paul’s consulting work focuses on facilitation and analytical modeling to support strategic planning and decision-making, cost management, and improved customer experiences. He has also developed solutions around customer segmentation, demand forecasting, and performance improvement. He currently runs his own management and education consultancy and is a frequent conference presenter. Professor Thurman currently teaches strategic management and data analysis courses at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. He has also taught courses in decision, risk, and operations in the full-time and Executive MBA Programs at the Columbia, London, and University of California, Berkeley business schools, and at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Paul was also a Healthcare Research Fellow, Professor, and MBA Program Director at the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO in Russia, and he has held visiting professorships in China, India, Brazil, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Chile, Australia, and Iceland. In addition to his faculty appointments, Paul serves as a clinical professor and affiliated researcher at the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Research at the National Institutes of Health. His recent peer-reviewed research has focused on scientific collaboration and its effect on research quality, and also on cancer drug patents, FDA approvals, and market pricing. He is the author of MBA Fundamentals Statistics, (Kaplan, 2008; CreateSpace 2016), Pocket Guide to Data Analysis (Kaplan, 2009), and co-author (with Thomas P. Ference) of MBA Fundamentals Strategy (Kaplan, 2009; CreateSpace 2016). Dr. Thurman is also lead editor and chapter author, with colleagues from around the world, of Female Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Father-Daughter Succession in Family Businesses, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability, and Leadership and Change Management: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, four research compendia published by Gower/Taylor and Rutledge (UK) from 2010-2016. In 2013, Paul completed a text for the SAS Institute, Propensity Scoring and Adjustment for Causal Inference, and presently, in addition to leading USAID-, CDC-, and HRSA-funded efforts to reform public health education in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Democratic Republic of Congo, Paul is working with the World Bank to develop a text and workshop on data analysis and decision-making in fragile states focused on the country of Sudan. He recently published his 10th book, a text on strategic planning and decision-making, for the SAS Institute. Finally, Paul has served on the boards of the Greenburgh (New York) Nature Center, the Scarsdale (New York) Teen Center, and currently sits on the advisory boards of a number of entrepreneurial ventures in healthcare, media and entertainment, and information technology security. Paul received his BS in mathematics from Stanford University and his MBA (valedictorian) from Columbia. He also completed doctoral work in health policy and management at the State University of New York and received his Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree from the Ecole des Ponts Business School in Paris, France.

Abdul Haris is a Geophysics Professor at Universitas Indonesia’s Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Prof. Haris earned his Doctor rerum naturalium in Geophysics from the University of Kiel in Germany. He successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Amplitude Preserving Pre-stack Depth Migration and Its Application to Imaging of BSR in Marine Multichannel Seismic Reflection Data.”

Prof. Haris began his career at Universitas Indonesia in 1999 as a lecturer in the Department of Physics and a researcher in the Research Center for Marine Geosciences. He has extensive management experience at Universitas Indonesia, beginning as the Faculty Secretary in 2008, progressing to Chief Geoscientist in 2013, and Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences from 2014 to 2019. He was then appointed as the Vice-Rector Universitas Indonesia in Research and Innovation until 2020, and he is currently the Vice-Rector Universitas Indonesia in Academics and Student Affairs (2020-present).

Prof. Haris has vast professional experience as an Indonesian oil and gas exploration consultant. He is also active in several academic organizations, such as the Vice President of the Association of Indonesian Geophysicists (HAGI), the Association of Indonesian Geologists (IAGI), and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG).

Prof. Haris is frequently assigned to lead transformational change in higher education in the managerial field. As Dean, he was successful in establishing multidisciplinary research laboratories in collaboration with Pertamina at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. He also established an independent natural and formal sciences accreditation agency (LAMSAMA) to improve the quality of mathematics and natural sciences education in Indonesia.

Prof. Haris specialized in hydrocarbon reservoirs, seismic analysis, and geostatistics. His research in the abovementioned fields has been published in the prestigious International Journal of Geoscience. In addition, he was named SINTA’s best researcher in Indonesia by the Minister of Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia and received an honorable mention in the Asia Pacific Regional Imperial Barrel Award in 2017.

Being a polymath, she strongly believes in lifelong learning and is currently pursuing her second PhD in Educational Technology and Learning Design at Simon Fraser University. Her current research is related to faculty professional development in blended learning. Prior to shifting her career and moving to Canada Dr. Shilibekova was the First ViceRector of the Atyrau State University and the Founding Director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Gumilyov Eurasian National University in Kazakhstan.