Professor Kamarul Salleh has been a distinguished member of the School since 1997 when he joined as a postgraduate researcher.

He is now a Director of the Centre for Malaysian Research and Education Excellence focusing on new approaches for the UK to help improve research and education outcomes in Malaysia and leveraging the strengths of the collaborative partnerships particularly in the built environment to generate multiple streams of new prospects and opportunities.

He is also a Director of Sense Cost Consulting; a subsidiary of Mace Group (one of the world's most accomplished consultancy and construction firms) responsible for overseeing the public sector capital investment function and a key member of the management committee.

He was educated at Universiti Teknologi Mara Malaysia (Diploma Quantity Surveying, 1994), Glasgow Caledonian University (BSc. Hons Quantity Surveying, 1996), University of Strathclyde (MPhil Facilities Management, 1997) and received his PhD from University of Salford in 2003 based on a thesis, "The Influence of Retail Design on Rental Prices: A Study of Retail Sector in Malaysia", supervised by Professor Les Ruddock.

He held scholarships from Majlis Amanah Rakyat Malaysia and Yayasan Perak Malaysia and won a variety of awards including Best International Malaysian Youth Award 2000 and XVII Commonwealth Games Volunteer Award 2002. He is also Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a Member of the British Institute of Facilities Management.

In 2005, he was elected as a President of the Malaysian Research Group and became a Chairman of the MRG International Conference 2006 (joint-sponsored by Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia and University of Salford). During his tenure, he has been instrumental in setting up the UK-Malaysia Research Collaboration Initiative between Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Mara Malaysia and University of Salford, University of Manchester and University of Liverpool. He was also been appointed as a Scientific Committee Convenor and Editor in Chief for the UK-Malaysia Engineering Conference 2008 (joint-sponsored by Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia and University College London) and until recently as a Scientific Committee Member for the International Built and Human Environment Research Week 2009 (organised by University of Salford).

In his research, he had a strong interest on Public Private Partnership, Sustainability and Whole Life Cost. He gave the Malaysian National Asset and Facility Management Convention 2007 presentation on the 'Best Practices and Success Stories in Asset and Facility Management', 'Sharing of Experiences'. His main publications include:

• "Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the 9th Malaysian Plan -  Understanding the Key Issues", Proceedings of the MRG International Conference 2006, Manchester, June 2006, K R Salleh
• "Public Finance and Infrastructure Financing: Questions of Equity", Proceedings of the Second International Postgraduate Research in the Built and Human Environment, Salford, April 2002, K R Salleh and L Ruddock
• "The Influence of Commercial Retail Facilities Design on Rental Prices", Proceedings of 15th Annual Arcom Conference, Liverpool John Moores University, September 1999. K R Salleh and L Ruddock
• "The Influence of Commercial Retail Facilities Design on Rental Prices", Proceedings of 1st Annual Bizarre Fruits Conference, University of Salford, October 1998. K R Salleh and L Ruddock

With over 10 years' experience, he has been extensively involved in developing and managing key cost and risk drivers of the education, healthcare, housing and regeneration projects that have socio-economic and environmental impacts, external affairs sensitivity and long term relationships between public and private organisations. His career profile has had an emphasis on delivering best value at every level of project cycle for many Public Private Partnership schemes including Building School for the Future (BSF), National Academies Framework, Nottinghamshire County Council PFI Grouped Schools, Local Improvement Finance Trust Healthcare Scheme (LIFT), National Health Services Procure21 Framework and the Manchester Salford Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder Partnership (MSP).

It is in these sort of schemes that he has meticulously developed his concern on the following aspects: create multifaceted cost competencies that can integrate with the overall strategy and functionality; establish procurement processes that can deliver an appropriate balance between investment and cost; and maximise negotiation strategies that can increase value and deliver savings on resources consumption. By considering these aspects, he believes would result in enhancing competitive advantage and ensuring the best value investment.

Currently he is a leading cost manager for Hertfordshire County Council and had the distinction of overseeing the united front of capital and lifecycle investment of circa 1.2 billion pounds over the next 15 years for BSF programme to rebuild and refurbish 88 secondary schools. He is assisting the BSF team and provides key inputs in the areas of conceptualisation and raises the design standard with state-of-the-art classroom, arts and music, sports and ICT facilities of the 10 schools under Wave 4, valued at 200 million pounds. In addition, he develops cost modelling techniques and benchmarking information which were aligned to industry standards and is now in the process of establishing a mechanism for process improvement on cost estimation through a method of measurement, standard asset profile and relationship between design, construction, lifecycle, facilities management and occupancy costs either at elemental and component level.