Associate Vice President (Global Partnerships)

Professor Geoffrey Shen is Associate Vice President (Global Partnerships), Director of Global Engagement and Chair Professor of Construction Management of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).

Professor Shen graduated from Tsinghua University in China with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Structural Engineering in 1986, received the Sino-British Friendship Scholarship to pursue his PhD studies in the UK in 1988, and earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Salford in 1993. He joined PolyU in 1994 as an assistant professor and was promoted through the ranks to Chair Professor of Construction Management in 2008. He served as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment for 13 years since 2007, Head of the Department of Building and Real Estate concurrently from 2008 to 2014, and Interim Vice President (Student Affairs) in 2018.

Professor Shen has a proven track record of accomplishment in construction management with a special interest in sustainable construction. His outstanding academic achievements have been recognised locally and internationally. He has been appointed as a member of the Engineering Panel of the Research Grants Council in Hong Kong since 2017, a member of the editorial boards of several leading journals in construction engineering and management, and has been invited to give keynote presentations at many international conferences. He was appointed as a member of the built environment panel of the Research Assessment Exercise in Hong Kong in 2006, and was the Chairman of the Global Leadership Forum in Construction Engineering and Management Programs between 2014 and 2016. Professor Shen is recognised as one of the world’s “Highly Cited Researchers 2023” by Clarivate Analytics for his significant research impact, as reflected in his publication of multiple papers that have been frequently cited by fellow academics. The list identifies 6,849 the most influential scholars from around the world, determined by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science citation index over the last 11 years.

Professionally, Professor Shen is Eminent Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Value Management. He was appointed as a member of the Advanced Construction Technologies Sub-committee of the Construction Innovation and Technology Fund between 2018 and 2020. As a certified Value Management Facilitator (List A), he has provided professional services for the design and construction of a number of large and complex construction projects. He received the prestigious Presidential Citation Award from SAVE International (the premier international society in advancing and promoting the Value Methodology) in 2009 for his “energetic and engaging effort to enhance value research and education”.