Management Team

Don Kirkpatrick - Ph.D. Chairman Emeritus

Don is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, and a widely respected teacher, author, and consultant. He has over 40 years of corporate and academic experience in training and evaluation, and is the originator of the Four Levels -- the premier international model for training evaluation. His four-level model of training evaluation has become the standard for evaluating the impact of training. He has conducted workshops in countries all over the world.

Don is the author of several management inventories and seven books, including Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels. He is past president of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). In 1997, he was introduced into TRAINING magazine's Hall of Fame, and in 2004 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from ASTD.

R. Palan Ph.D., Chairman

Palan’s passion is to pioneer innovations in the field of learning and performance. Though trained as a chemist, he later switched over to the field of people development. He has authored several books including The Magic of Making Training FUN!!, Frequently Asked Questions in HRD, and Competency Management – A Practitioner’s Guide. In the last 16 years, he has also worked on HRDPower, the innovative competency based software developed by SMR.

Karen Ong CITD Managing Director, SMR (HRD Division)

Karen is a learner-oriented trainer with over 20 years of experience in automobile and broadcasting industries in Singapore and Malaysia. An SMR Accredited Training Professional (ATP), Karen has a Certificate in Training and Development (CITD) from the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), UK. She is a Zenger-Miller certified trainer (Frontline Leadership). Karen’s participative and friendly training style has enabled participants in Malaysia, Singapore, India, Taiwan, Japan, and USA to benefit greatly from her training sessions.

M. Nadarajah Ph.D., Director R & D

Dr. Nat is a sociologist by training and holds a Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) India. He guides the technology initiatives at SMR.

While we would like his undivided attention to focus on us, we have had to grudgingly share him with his varied interests, which include the media and his concern for sustainable development and non-formal education (especially in the areas of media and culture).

He has worked with Asianet, India’s first private ethnic channel, in their New Delhi office. He has also been associated with the Asia Pacific office of Consumer International (CI) and a Japanese institute (IICRC) in Kanazawa, Japan, on projects in the area of sustainable development and urbanization.

His published works include Beyond Workerism: Culture, Gender and Ecology; Pathways to Critical Media Education and Beyond, a book on media education/reform; and Another Malaysia is Possible and Other Essays, a book on culture and political sustainability.

Nat is also a freelance documentary filmmaker with documentaries like A Profile of Empowerment and Sustainable Penang to his credit.