Chua Khong Wai

Chua Khong Wai is a research professional with over 25 years of experience shaping research strategy, policy, and institutional performance across Malaysian higher education. He has established and led research offices at several leading Malaysian universities - building each function from the ground up, centralising research management, and redesigning governance frameworks and procedures to support sustainable growth. His functional matrix has since been adopted by an Australia-based consulting firm as a benchmark model for institutional scaling.

He has a strong track record of driving improvements in Malaysia's MyRA research rating framework, turning fragmented, low-maturity data into actionable intelligence and measurable performance gains, often without formal systems in place. Building on this strength, he designs and delivers tailored research analytics solutions - integrated data pipelines and dashboards that turn complex, multi-source data into decision-ready intelligence - and institutionalises this capability through systems development and workflow digitalisation.

Beyond institutional leadership, he serves as an independent advisor to global consulting firms including Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), AlphaSights, and EY-Parthenon on higher education policy and research ecosystems across Asia-Pacific. He is an active member of the Australasia Research Management Society (ARMS) and convened Malaysia's first research management professionalisation forum in 2019.