Mukhtar A. Kassem has a Ph.D. from the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, National University of Malaysia (UKM); a master's (M.Sc.) in Project Management from Open University Malaysia (OUM); and a bachelor’s (B.Sc.) in Civil Engineering from Babylon University, Iraq. He has 15 years of experience in the supervision, implementation, and management of oil and gas construction projects. He is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Quantity Surveying, Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.