Dr Zainal Ariffin Ahmad was appointed as Fellow, Academy of Sciences Malaysia in 2017. He is a retired academic who had served more than 25 years in 3 universities in USA and Malaysia. He started his academic career at Northern Illinois University in 1989 and served and retired as an Associate Professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia from 1994 to 2010. He served as Professor in Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) until 2015. Upon retirement, he became a Certified Professional Coach under Teamcoach International, Certified Trainer under TTT HRDF in 2017 and Certified Facilitator under the Finnish National Education Centre (FINEEC) in 2019.
He served as an expert panel to the Ministry of Human Resources in developing the National Competencies Standards (NCS) for Teaching and Learning and Facilitation. He received the National Academic Award (AAN) for Teaching in 2008. His focus areas are in human resource management, strategic planning, learning and development through training and consultancy. Currently, he conducts workshops linking STI technologies with socio-economic development, and advocacy work for children and adults with special needs and different abilities.
Fellow, Academy of Sciences Malaysia (2017-)
Expert Panel, Facilitation, DLKM, National Occupational Skills Standard (MOHR) (2017)
Certified Facilitator, Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (2019)
Certified Trainer, TTT HRDF (2017)
Certified Professional Coach, Teamcoach International (2015)
Advisor, Challenges Foundation (2015)

- Past -
Program Coordinator, University Programming & Activities, NIU (1989-94)
Associate Professor, School of Management & Graduate School of Business, USM (1994-2010)
Recipient, Anugerah Akademik Negara AAN for Teaching (MOHE) (2008)
Professor and Deputy Dean, College of Graduate Studies & Graduate Business School, UNITEN (2010-15)
Research Fellow, University of New South Wales (2011)
Grant Reviewer, MOSTI and MOHE (2011-2015)
Member, National Science & Research Council (NSRC) (2013-14)
Researcher, Centre of Social Innovation (COSI), UTP (2014-18)
Member, International Association of Coaching (IAC) (2015)
Senior Consultant, TruCAT (2015-2019)
Adjunct Professor, Asia e-University (2016-18)
Vice President, Malaysian Association of Facilitators (MaFA) (2018-19)