Dr. Umar is an Associate Professor in the School of Business and Quality Management, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, Dubai, UAE with over 15 years of experience in tertiary education, administration, and accreditation. He earned his PhD in Accounting and Finance from Lincoln University, New Zealand, where he also completed a post doctoral fellowship. He has authored numerous refereed articles in leading international accounting and finance journals, serves as an editorial board member and a reviewer for prominent journals, and has chaired several international conferences as well. As a committed mentor, he has supervised many thesis candidates and has acted as an external PhD examiner for multiple international universities. Beyond academia, he is a Fellow of The Commercial Education Society of Australia and brings over a decade of service experience as a Quality Assurance and Accreditation Expert with the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, contributing to program funding, regulation, and institutional and international accreditation.