1. Dr. M.H. Rahman: A Biographical Sketch
Habib Rahman is an academic professional with over two decades of experience in higher
education planning &administration, institution building, program and accreditation standards
development in international settings. He has held a number of senior executive positions at
academic institutions in regions such as Central Asia, the Arabian Gulf, South East Asia and Africa
where he helped to establish and develop academic institutions and programs in business and
information technology. Until recently, he was the President and CEO of Emirates College for
Management and Information Technology (ECMIT) in Dubai, UAE where he helped to establish
a western-style governance and management structure, credit based graduate and undergraduate
programs and institutional accreditation standards that ultimately led to upgrading and
reaccreditation of all academic programs. Prior to joining ECMIT, Rahman served as the
Executive Vice President and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs at Kazakhstan Institute
of Management, Economics and Strategic Research (KIMEP) university, a leading American
academic institution in the CIS region. At KIMEP, Dr. Rahman spent almost 11 years playing a
key role in planning and developing its six constituent colleges such as business, social sciences,
continuing education, law, liberal arts & language studies, as well an executive training center.
During this period, he developed partnerships with a network of European, American and South
Korean Universities and donor agencies such as USAID, Soros Foundation, TACIS of the EU and
Korea Foundation that led to the development of world-class academic programs. In particular, he
worked closely with Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands to develop BBA, MBA and
Ex MBA programs; University of Northern Colorado, USA to develop the DBA program; and
University of San Francisco, USA to develop joint programs in social sciences. Furthermore, he
established strong relationships with American and European accreditation bodies such as New
England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) of the USA, EQUIS of the EFMD,
European Union and AMBA of the United Kingdom that led to the international recognition of the
academic programs at KIMEP.

2. Additionally, Rahman served as an advisor to the board of trustees of a number of universities in
Central Asia, Middle East and other regions where his main task was to facilitate the development
of North American style governance and management structure, and world-class institutional and
program standards that would lead to the international accreditation and recognition of the
institutions. Before that, Rahman was an international development consultant and president of
an Ottawa based consulting agency in which his primary role was to assist developing countries in
building western-style academic institutions, management structure, academic programs and
accreditation standards. Prior to that, Rahman was a faculty member and a research scientist at
the University of Bahrain, where in addition to teaching and research, he took part in the
development of credit-based academic programs and regulations in collaboration with Ryerson
International Development Center of the Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Canada.
During the 1970s, Mr. Rahman was a Ph.D. student and a Research Associate at Carleton
University in Ottawa, Canada where he completed his Ph.D. course requirements and conducted
research in high energy theoretical physics.
Rahman received his Ph.D. from Brunel, the University of West London, UK, in Experimental
Solid State Physics. He is the author of a number of research articles published in journals of
international repute and conference papers used in conference proceedings. He has been a
correspondent member of the International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, an elected
member of the American Physical Society, Washington and a full member of the Canadian and
Indian Physics Associations, Ottawa and Mumbai, respectively. Rahman was awarded certificates
of distinguished services by the University of Bahrain, KIMEP University, and recognition by the
late Emir of Bahrain for taking part in the development of the Bahrain Astronomical Society.
Furthermore, he received a plaque of honor from the Yale Center for International and Area Studies
of Yale University, USA, for his contributions towards developing collaboration between YALE
and Central Asian academic institutions.

3. Skills and Expertise possessed by Dr. Rahman:
Initial institutional set up for new academic institutions
 Feasibility and environmental studies for a new institution
 Business plan development
 Mission , vision and foundation document development
 Institutional goals and mission driven strategic plan development
 Organizational structure development
 Academic, research and administrative units structure development
 Enrolment management system development
 Human Resources policy development
 Review and Assessment system development
 Advising system development
Governance and Management
 North American style Governance, management & organizational structure development
 Board bylaws, Board engagement and Board effectiveness system development
 Policy making bodies such as university and college council development
Accreditation Standards Development
 Long and short term strategic plan, monitoring and evaluation system development
 Quality assurance and assessment rubrics development
 Student success and student learning assessment system development
 Program and institutional accreditation standards development in compliance with
American, European & Gulf countries requirements
 Accreditation & self-study steering process development
 Self-study report design and writing
Academic Program Development
 Credit based undergraduate and graduate program development in business, social
sciences, liberal arts and commerce with appropriate curricula and learning outcomes
 Corporate training and professional program development
 Study Policy, and study rules and regulations development

4.  Enrolment management system development
 Program proposal writing for initial approval and accreditation
Research & Development
 Research policy, research management and support structure development
 Research strategy, research direction, and fund raising strategy development
Corporate linkages & Community Engagement
 Strategy development for business and corporate support
 Business Advisory Council
 Community engagement strategy and plan
 Alumni relations and support
International Relations
 Internationalization and partnership with universities worldwide
 Study abroad system development
 Joint research and Student Exchange program development
Examples of international projects initiated and completed
by Dr. Rahman in the last one decade:
 A 1.8 million Euro Project for the development of MBA and DBA
programs, business faculty capacity, learning resources and quality
assurance at KIMEP University, Almaty, Kazakhstan. The project,
funded by the TACIS of the EU, involved development of European style
MBA and Ex. MBA programs, and accreditation standards in compliance
with EQUIS of the EFMD accreditation body. The project was
completed in collaboration with Maastricht School of Management,
Netherlands and a consortium of seven business schools across EU over
a period of two years.
 A 2 million dollar project to develop a business college at KIMEP. Over
a period of two years, the college developed the first DBA program of
the Central Asian Region in collaboration with faculty members from

5. University of Northern Colorado, USA. Part of the fund was used to host
visiting professors from the USA , EU and Korea.
 A 2.5 million dollar Soros Foundation supported project for developing
social science programs at KIMEP University. Working closely with
faculty members from the USA, the fund was used to develop master of
public administration (MPA) and Master of Arts in economics (M.A)
programs over a period of three years. Over the years the MPA program
attained recognition and accreditation from NASPAA of the USA, and
the M.A program attained international recognition through key
partnership with University of San Francisco, USA.
 A 0.5 million dollar ExxonMobil supported project for developing
American institutional accreditation standards at KIMEP University.
Rahman worked with a prominent American regional accreditation body:
New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) to develop
a self-study steering process and accreditation standards. The project
fund was used to support steering committee members to attend self
study workshops in the USA and NEASC site visits to KIMEP. The
project lasted for about three years.
 A $465,000.00 KOOKMIN BANK (South Korea) supported project to
develop a Center for Korean Studies in Almaty, Kazakhstan . Rahman
worked with a team of South Korean academics and Korea Foundation
in Seoul to develop the Center and relevant academic programs in
Korean language, culture, tradition and history etc. The project was
intended to enhance political and cultural ties between Kazakhstan and
S .Korea through scholarly activities and supporting visiting scholars
from South Korea, USA and Kazakhstan.
 Completed a $ 1 million dollar project on the development of a college
of continuing education and an executive training center at KIMEP in
collaboration with faculty members from Canadian and American
academic institutions. Short and long term corporate training and
professional development programs were developed and offered in a

6. variety of business areas such as leadership, strategic management,
human resource management , entrepreneurship, strategic
marketing, money & banking and advanced management etc. in
collaboration with American Management Association (AMA), and
Korea University School of Business, Korea . Furthermore, Under the
project, a number of faculty members were trained at the Darden School
of Business in the USA.
 Developed a proposal for a Canadian style university college in Dubai,
UAE in collaboration with four international consultants. The proposal
is currently being considered by potential investors.