The university crossed yet another defining milestone, with the official appointment of Prof Dr Wong Tat Meng as the new Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer effective today.
Prof Wong succeeds Tan Sri Emeritus Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan who had served as WOU’s founding Vice Chancellor and CEO since July 2005.
For most of us, if not all, Prof Wong is a familiar figure at WOU, having held the position of Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) since 2006.
A biologist by training, the Sultan Abdul Hamid College alumnus from Alor Star received his BSc (Hons) and PhD in Zoology from the University of Otago, Dunedin in New Zealand. He then served for 21 years at Universiti Sains Malaysia where he held various academic and administrative positions. Most notably, Prof Wong was the founding director of USM’s Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies.
Prof Wong brings with him over 35 years of experience in both conventional and distance education. His foray into open and distance education began in 1993 when he joined the Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong (now known as the Open University of Hong Kong) as Dean of its School of Science and Technology. Two years later, he was promoted to Chair Professor and Dean, a position he held until 2006 when he accepted the invitation to join WOU in its early inception.
He was Secretary-General of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) from 1999 to 2002, and Advisor to the Secretariat of AAOU from 2002 – 2007.
We believe that with the able leadership of Prof Wong, WOU will continue to grow as a premiere institution delivering quality education to the people. And as Tan Sri Raj so aptly describes, Prof Wong is a respected academic, able administrator, serious educator, wonderful networker and a hard worker.
Of course as they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. So when not hard at work, Prof Wong can be found on the tennis courts of the Penang Sports Club. Perhaps some of you who are thinking of challenging him in a game of tennis should be ‘forewarned’ that he can still deliver a ‘thunderbolt’ serve and a killer smash!
