Syed has a strong Information Systems, Operations Management and BPM background, from both academic and practice perspectives. Prior to commencing his PhD at QUT, he was Chief Operating Officer (2011-2014) at Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT), which is a collaboration of the Staffordshire University (UK) and the Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU-Malaysia). Syed was also the Academic Program Director (2005-2011) for IT and Management; where he led the development of the postgraduate and undergraduate MIS and BPM curricula for the franchised awards from Staffordshire University-UK. This program was one of the first to teach BPM in Sri Lanka. He has wide experience of writing the Programme Specification, Award Validation, and Quality Assurance documents for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in MIS. Syed has received formal training from the Staffordshire University and APU in course and curricula design, and delivery (activity-based, problem-based, and online/digital delivery) of courseware (the example programme specification and course design documents can be provided upon request). 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. He is well versed in conceptual modelling (i.e. system & data modelling and process modelling), and has been teaching conceptual modelling 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.