Up close and personal with Nicholas Lum, Dean of ELM Graduate School
a. Please introduce yourself.
I am a learner and explorer. I like to learn new things, new cultures and new knowledge as I don’t know what I don’t know. I like to explore new opportunities, new food and new friendships as I continue to discover new frontiers.
I spent my early childhood in Kota Bahru, went to Singapore to study at age ten. Went to Catholic High School and then Hwa Chong Junior College. Ten years later I was offered the Australian Government Scholarship to study at The University of Melbourne for my Bachelor (Honours) and Masters (Honours) degree in Financial Economics. I then worked in the financial industry with HSBC Bank and a consulting firm specialising in corporate valuations and fundings. I joined the academic industry and was the founding Regional Director of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) Malaysia chapter from year 2007 to year 2016. I was part of the three-men senior management team to successfully list one of the largest IPOs in Asia excluding Japan in year 2010. I earned my Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D) from Victoria University, Australia and I was facilitating Financial Engineering course at Xiamen University Malaysia before joining the ELM Graduate School at HELP University.
I love to travel and enjoy casual golf during my spare time. I am also interested in Chinese culture and is exploring the dialectic of eastern and western thinking.
b. Tell us ,what is your role at ELMGS.?
I am the Dean of ELM Graduate School, Associate Professor in Economics and Finance.
c. What are your plans for 2022 for ELMGS?
My plan for year 2022 is to get to know better the faculty and professional members at ELM Graduate School and work as a cohesive team, collaborating with other stakeholders too, to reposition ELM Graduate School as a fun place to learn via experiential learning for senior executives and all learners in the industry. Humanising disruptive learning will be our motto for ELM Graduate School.
d. Any upcoming news or latest achievements you wish to share regarding ELMGS?
ELM Graduate School is currently the first and only University in Malaysia to have granted license from Malaysia Quality Assurance to conduct the APEL.Q DBA or Accredidation of prior experiential learning DBA program. We managed to launch the Malaysia Vietnam Business Initiative (MVBI) and organised the first event of a roundtable talk with the CEO/Country Director of Tricor Vietnam and Director of YYC Advisor on 18th February 2022. ELM Graduate School also played an instrumental role in helping the Vice Chancellor’s office to secure MOU signing with SME Association of Malaysia on 28th February 2022. There will be many more exciting strategic collaborations with industry partners to help elevate the branding of ELM Graduate School in the international market in the long term. We expect to organise many different events to network and provide a more humanistic approach via informal and non formal learning to complement the formal learning in class.
e. What new programmes/studies that you think future students of ELMGS would be interested in joining?
Master of Applied Data Analytics. In the new era of big data and machine learning, data is the new oil of the digital economy. Data analytics will help one to explore historical data to make appropriate decisions in the future using valuable insights. With the new Master in Applied Business Analytics (MABA) at HELP we want to form the new generation of Managers 4.0, managers dealing with the new resource of INFORMATION, considered as a strategic asset. These managers will be specialized in problem solving and strategic decision making, implementing efficient strategies facing the complex and dynamic world of the IR 4.0. Graduands are expected to be highly sought after by employers globally.
We also have more than a dozen of other postgraduate programmes for different needs of different learners.