The Team
Professor Dr Daniel Chong Ka Leong
Professor Dr. Daniel Chong is Dean and Professor of Hospitality at Sunway University, with more than 20 years of experience in hospitality education, industry training and academic leadership. He holds a French degree in Tourism and Hospitality, an Australian MBA, and a Doctorate in Business Administration specialising in Services Branding. A former hotelier and F&B professional, Professor Dr. Daniel has held operational, consulting and training roles across multinational hotel groups, restaurant franchises and hospitality consulting. He is a Certified Hospitality Trainer (CHT®), WSET-certified wine trainer, Master Barista certified by Illy Università del Caffè, and an Accredited Corporate Trainer under Malaysia’s HRD Corp. An award-winning educator, he has received teaching excellence awards and the Excellence in Innovation and Enterprise Award. His research focuses on the challenges and opportunities shaping hospitality and tourism in Asia. Internationally, he serves as Malaysia’s National Representative to the ASEAN–Korea Tourism Roundtable and as a Board Member of the Asia Pacific Tourism Association.
- Lecturer
- Internship Coordinator
ºÚÁÏÉç(MY)
Farah Atiqah Mohamad Noor
Farah Atiqah is a Lecturer at Sunway University, specialising in Events Management. She has been a lecturer at the tertiary level since 2013 and joined ºÚÁÏÉçin 2017. She completed her MSc in Tourism at Taylor’s University, where she conducted research on a local community’s perception of slow tourism, a responsible form of tourism. Her Master's research work was funded by the Malaysia's Higher Education Ministry through the Long-Term Research Grant Scheme (LRGS grant no: JPT.S (BPKI)2000/09/01/015Jld.4(67)]). She is also responsible for the planning, management, and coordination of the internship component at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. She is currently a PhD candidate at Universiti Putra Malaysia, where her research focuses on Muslim-friendly tourism.
Dr Gary Daniels
Dr Gary Daniels is a Senior Lecturer working across hospitality, tourism, entrepreneurship and management at Sunway University. His academic career spans the United Kingdom and Malaysia and is complemented by ten years as founder and managing director of hospitality businesses in Chengdu, China. His research examines entrepreneurship, small business, work and labour, technology, mobility and industry change in hospitality and tourism, with particular interest in ASEAN and other emerging-economy contexts. Recent research includes work on female solo travel, robot integration in hospitality, migrant inclusion, platform-mediated food delivery, employee ergonomics and emerging foodservice business models. Dr Gary has extensive experience in curriculum development, experiential and work-integrated learning, executive education and industry engagement. He previously served as Head of the Centre for Hospitality Innovation and Leadership at Sunway University, where he led industry-facing education, professional development and external partnership initiatives. He has supervised three PhDs to completion as Main Supervisor and continues to supervise doctoral research across tourism, hospitality and foodservice entrepreneurship. His earlier academic work in employment relations and organisational studies continues to inform his interest in work, organisations and people within contemporary service industries.
- Head of Centre
- Principal Teaching Fellow
ºÚÁÏÉç(MY)
Hairani M Nur
Hairani M Nur is a Principal Teaching Fellow at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Her teaching areas focuses on the planning and execution of events at Diploma and Degree programme. For practical elements, she continuously adds value to students’ experiential learning with event projects that incorporate external stakeholders such as academic conferences. Apart from teaching, she guides the School’s teams for national and international competitions on MICE-related topics, with the most recent competitions being MICE Destination Marketing Contest 2021 organized by the Bureau of Foreign Trade and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and AFECA Asia MICE Youth Challenge 2021organized by the Asian Federation of Exhibition and Convention Associations (AFECA). She designs and implements short courses such as Certificate in Sustainable City Destination and Certificate in Sustainable City Destination Application, with participations from Japanese and Indonesian universities. She participates in professional trainings especially those organized by the Malaysian Association of Convention and Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers (MACEOS) to enhance her skills and knowledge in business events.
Dr Philip Wong Pong Weng
Dr Philip Wong Pong Weng is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at ºÚÁÏÉçsince 2020. Dr Philip Wong has a PhD (Marketing) from Universiti Putra Malaysia; a MBA from University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA; and completed his BSc in Business Administration (Marketing) at California State University, Fresno, USA. Prior to joining Sunway University, he has taught at Taylor’s University for 16 years. Before embarking into the world of academia, Dr Philip Wong has accumulated a wealth of industry experience from working in both the hotel and the travel industry for a total of 16 years. He has held the posts of Director of Sales & Marketing for a number of international hotels, as well as being the Deputy General Manager for a major Malaysian inbound tour operator. Dr Philip Wong had also conducted training courses in tourism marketing for hospitality and tourism professionals, such as officials from the National Tourism Organizations of Siera Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Vietnam, Tonga, and Malaysia, as well as hotel executives from Maldives, Vietnam and Malaysia. He is now actively involved in research and scholarly activities in the area of destination marketing, branding, and green marketing. His work has been published in international journals such as Tourism Review, Journal of Destination Marketing and Management, Current Issues in Tourism, Anatolia, Tourism Analysis, International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration, International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Journal of China Tourism Research, Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, Turyzm/Tourism, and Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
Dr Rita Lo
Dr Rita Lo is currently Secretary for the Malaysia Executive Housekeeper Association. She has worked with several hotels and International Hotel Association on projects involving service quality, room division management, pro-management program and hotel operation documentation. Her areas of expertise include room division operations management, fragrance creation and revenue data analytic management. Her scope of research comprises the effective service quality tools for the hotel and tourism industry, hotel pricing strategy and revenue management strategy. Prior to joining the education industry, Dr Rita took on a supervisory role in Rooms Revenue, Room Division Operations, Guest Relation Executive as well as Training Supervisor at various hotels and retail companies.
Dr Sara Abhari
Sara Abhari possesses more than 10 years of experience in the hospitality industry, working as an event planner and an executive catering chef. Her career in food and beverage kickstarted in 2002 as a food entrepreneur and co-founder of a catering kitchen (S.Kitchen). Her wealth of knowledge and skills in this area of hospitality has also opened up other opportunities where she also became a culinary consultant and instructor. Sara is also an enthusiastic writer and was formerly a food writer and critic for the International Nutrition and Diet Magazine.
Suhaini Ibrahim
Ms Sohaini Ibrahim has acquired 26 years of teaching experience in tourism and business event studies, both at a public and private universities in Malaysia. On October 2012, she was part of a team of 114 scientists and personnel selected from local universities to collaborate in the 2nd Temengor Scientific Expedition, led by Universiti Putra Malaysia and WWF (Malaysia). The expedition covered 1,500 hectares of Sungai Enam Basin to identify sites for eco-tourism interest. She and her colleagues from ºÚÁÏÉçhas co-researched an economic study of corporate meetings and incentive organizer’s expenditure and spending pattern under Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) for 2018 and 2019. Currently, she teaches Sustainable Tourism Development to undergraduate students at the School. She is also a member of the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), and an institutional associate member of The Malaysian Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (MACEOS).
