Kuala Lumpur, 26 April 2019. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) proudly announced that Dr Mathew Maavak was awarded with a PhD in Policy Studies during the 62nd Convocation ceremony on April 29-30 2019. His doctoral thesis, titled Developing a Net-Centric Foresight Model for the Management of Emerging Risks, commenced on Feb 15 2015 and culminated with a successful Viva defense in December 2018.
His research advocated the use of a web-pivoted Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) approach to scope out emerging risks and opportunities facing governments, organizations and micro-enterprises.
Dr Maavak’s doctoral research, undertaken at the Perdana Centre, Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, previously known as Perdana School of Science Technology and Innovation Policy entailed the development of a simplified and highly-adaptive Strategic Foresight Model (SFM) in line with the Industry 4.0 Policy developed by MITI and may contribute significantly to parallel emerging paradigms such as Governance 4.0. The SFM promises greater speed, accuracy and economy in triangulating future scenarios through a series of strategic questioning.
Due to his active participation in professional open source forums, he was talent-sourced to be an expert commentator for prominent global media organizations such as CCTV (China) and Sputnik News (Russia), among others. A CCTV interview featuring Maavak’s viewpoints on China’s globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is still featured on the website of the Premier of the People’s Republic of China (Incumbent: His Excellency Li Keqiang). This feat by a Malaysian scholar attests to the quality of graduates produced by Razak School, UTM. The article can be read here: http://english.gov.cn/news/top_news/2016/03/03/content_281475300614096.htm
Many of Dr Maavak’s geostrategic commentaries have been routinely republished by various media outlets worldwide. Dr Maavak was perhaps the only Southeast Asian to have consistently achieved this feat during his doctoral program at UTM. Most of his global commentaries and interviews had referenced him as a “doctoral researcher at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia” – thereby positioning UTM prominently in Google News and other search engine indexes. His articles and interviews had not only raised the global visibility of UTM, it would have inevitably boosted UTM’s position in the QS World University Ranking list during this period.
Even before attaining his doctoral candidature, Dr Maavak was talent-sourced for the EU-funded Platforms for Big Data Foresight project at the Kazimieras Simonavicius University in Vilnius, Lithuania. Currently, he is the only Asian in this project (Dec 3 2018 to Dec 1 2021). Brief details can be gleaned here: http://www.ksu.lt/en/departments/big-data-excellence-centre/
Another notch in his belt includes becoming the only regular Southeast Asian expert columnist for the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) – one of the most prominent think tanks in the world. His analyses for RIAC can be read here: https://russiancouncil.ru/en/mathew-maavak/
Since 2014, more than 20 senior officers from local and international governments have graduated successfully from the Perdana Centre and they are now holding senior positions in various ministries entailing critical national policy roles. As his main supervisor and on behalf of all Razak faculty members, we wish Dr Mathew Maavak every possible success in his present and future undertakings