This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 17, 2022 - October 23, 2022

In June this year, The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) welcomed a Malaysian — Datuk Seri Michael Yam — as its new president for the 2022/23 term.

Yam is the 119th CIOB president and, while he will be based in Malaysia, he will travel overseas to speak with members, especially on the topic he is most passionate about, which is sustainability in the construction environment.

Yam is no stranger to the Malaysian construction and property development industries, having spent 35 years, and counting, in the construction, real estate and corporate sectors. He has held top management positions, such as CEO of Sunrise Bhd (now UEM Sunrise Bhd), and was president of the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda) Malaysia from 2010 to 2014. He is chairman of InvestKL Corp, a Malaysian government investment agency, and several investment holding companies. Yam is also joint chairman of Triterra Sdn Bhd, developer of The MET, a premier office development in Mont’Kiara, Kuala Lumpur.

Yam graduated in Building and Management Studies from the University of Westminster in 1979 and became a member of CIOB in 1983.

CIOB is the world’s largest and most influential professional body for construction management and leadership, with more than 47,000 members worldwide, and its focus is to improve the quality of life of those using and creating the built environment. It aims to do this through education and to lead the push to improve building processes and elevate the construction industry.

“CIOB started out as the Builders Society 88 years ago. Then it became more professional, becoming the Institute of Building. It had involvement with universities and later became a chartered body,” Yam explains.

“It took a while for it to be considered a professional and chartered body because those who started the organisation did not have paper qualifications, as they were tradespeople.”

When he was in the UK, Yam himself was trained on-site by tradespeople, who had 20 to 30 years’ experience under their belt.

The society then, he explains, provided a “ladder of opportunity” to become a professional.

At the CIOB annual Member’s Forum in June, Yam spoke about championing the sustainability agenda, which would be the “catalyst for greater innovation and new skills”.

“It is a big challenge, but it is an exciting one because a lot of people would skirt around it. But if I am going to be a president that matters, I want to take it head on.

“There is a whole group of experts who will be in a working group to come up with a sustainability guidebook. I co-opted two Malaysians to be in the working group to make sure it isn’t too European- or English-centric. I am very excited to chair that project,” he says.

The guidebook will be targeted at members and concentrate on the construction and built environment space. Moreover, members will be encouraged to read it alongside CIOB’s publication called Code of Practice for Project Management, the sixth edition of which was released at the beginning of 2022. The publication provides guidance on and reference to project management principles and practices in construction and development.

In time, Yam says, these two publications may be merged so that sustainability becomes more a part of the construction process and practice.

In addition, with more than 47,000 members worldwide, this guidebook will provide a foundation for members to start their sustainability journey. Individual countries, meanwhile, can adapt it to suit their sustainability agenda.

When Yam was younger, he had an inkling that he would enter the construction and property development industry. His father was a provisional Class-A contractor, which meant he could tender for projects of any value anywhere in Malaysia.  Yam embarked on a building degree in the UK, which focused on the management of construction projects. It opened his eyes to and developed his understanding of the industries in which he would eventually become an influencer and stalwart.

“The building degree course in [UK] universities was developed for people who want to manage the construction and building process. To put it simply, you have the pre-construction phase, which will be the planning with architects, engineers and so on; then, you go through the tendering process, and the people who will tender for jobs are the contractors, construction companies, like in Malaysia. But unlike in Malaysia, construction companies in the UK have their own architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and everything; it is all very professionally run,” he says.

“After winning the bid, they go into the post-construction phase, the execution and delivery. If you want to be an engineer or architect and only want to be involved in the pre-construction phase, [you can]; you don’t have to do the delivery process. They are not the ones to manage the construction phase, where most of your costs and expenses can go [out] the window, because it is about managing the process.”

With the skills and experience picked up during his time in the UK, Yam returned to Malaysia. He encourages being part of a professional body because it helps to build knowledge, which could lead to innovation and personal growth.

“When you work overseas, you are conditioned by the environment there. People then naturally gravitate towards waiting to be part of a professional body. In those days, continual professional development was unheard of in Malaysia. Now, everybody talks about CPD. But that was part and parcel of maintaining professional membership,” he says.

Being part of a professional body, along with engaging with members who have vast amounts of knowledge and experience, provided Yam with a space to learn and grow as a person and professional. As a result, what he does has become second nature to him.

“It wasn’t conscious, it would have been subconscious. As you read and become part of that ecosystem, you get influenced. As a member, if you are part of the hub and you are meeting with like-minded people, you learn from each other,” he says, pointing to Rehda as an example, where people can learn from each other and grow the industry.

The path taken to climb to the top of one’s profession varies from one person to another. Yam’s route led him on a professional journey that has taken him from being a student of building to being a builder of students, ensuring that future generations hold to the sustainability agenda that will ultimately benefit all stakeholders and conserve resources for a built environment enjoyed by everyone.

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