Dr Rehan Syed

Doctor of Philosophy (Queensland University of Technology)

Dr Syed has a strong BPM and Information Systems background from both the academic and practice perspectives. His PhD thesis was awarded the 2019 Best Australian Information Systems Thesis Award and Medal by The Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems (ACPHIS). Syed is the Course Coordinator for Master of BPM (IN23) and Graduate Certificate in BPM. His PhD research, as well as other collaborated research works to date, have been published in reputed journals and top AIS conferences. Dr Syed's is an expert in case study and qualitative research methods and performed comprehensive qualitative data analysis using advanced qualitative data analysis software. Dr Syed's research interest are in the areas of  Socio-technical aspects of Process Automation, Digital Leadership, and Business Process Management for Transparency  (BPM4T) in public sector.

Prior to QUT, he was engaged in an extensive management and consultancy career at Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT) from 2000 to 2014 in Sri Lanka. APIIT is a prestigious tertiary institute and a joint collaboration between Staffordshire University (UK) and Asia Pacific University (Malaysia). During his tenure at APIIT, he had designed undergraduate and postgraduate IS academic programmes, accreditation and quality assurance documents, and validation documents for academic provisioning in line with the UK-Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) requirements. Dr Syed also held the position of Chief Operating Officer at APIIT, as well as the post of Director Local Technical Secretariat of the prestigious ‘Improving Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education’ (IRQUE) Project (sponsored by the World Bank). Dr Syed was the principal author of the World Bank’s grant for the Improving Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education (IRQUE) Project, securing the grant of US$ 695,000. Dr Syed's areas of expertise include Business Process Management (Modelling, Analysis, Improvement), Business Analysis, and Robotic Process Automation. Dr Syed has been teaching Business Analysis, Process Improvement, and Design Thinking topics at QUT (from 2015 to date) and at APIIT (from 2001-2014).  As a professionally qualified project manager and business analyst, Syed has maintained his technical expertise by active engagement with professional consultancy work with the World Bank, the Information Communication Technology Agency—Sri Lanka (ICTA), and the Sri Lankan Software Industry. Dr Syed holds a PhD from QUT and a Master of Project Management from USQ. Dr Syed is a Fellow of Higher Education Academy-UK  (FHEA) and a certified RPA Business Analyst as well as a PMI certified Project Manager (PMP).

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