Dr. Khairil Ahmad

Dr. Khairil Izamin Ahmad is a political theorist and policy leader with 20 years of crosssector experience spanning academia, civil society, and government engagement. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Essex, United Kingdom.

Since January 2025, he has served as the Director of MySDG Centre for Social Inclusion, the policy think tank of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia on Sustainable Development Goals (APPGM-SDG). He is also an Adjunct Professor of Practice at the University of Nottingham Malaysia’ School of Politics, International Relations and Economics, where he teaches, mentors students, and contributes to scholarly activities and curriculum design.

In his current role, he leads APPGM-SDG’s work in social and policy research, spearheading the translation of grassroots socioeconomic data into actionable policy insights for high-level engagement with parliamentarians, government ministries, and international bodies. He also leads public advocacy efforts and delivers policy and SDG-related training for government bodies, CSOs, and university students—notably serving as the SDG speaker for INTAN’s Postgraduate Diploma in Public Management programme. 

He has contributed to national and regional policy initiatives, including co-authoring the Peace and Partnership chapters of Malaysia’s 2025 Voluntary National Review (VNR), providing SDG-informed input into the 13th Malaysia Plan, and leading the writing team for the ASEAN SDG-SSE Roadmap (2026-2030)—a civil society-led regional action plan integrating social and solidarity economy principles into SDG implementation. He also co-developed, with a team of regional experts, an SDG-integrated Impact Assessment Framework for Social Enterprise and Social and Solidarity Economy at the ASEAN level.

Previously, he was an industry track academic at Universiti Malaya’s International Institute of Public Policy and Management (INPUMA), where he taught in the Master of Public Policy (MPP) programme and led client-facing work, delivering executive training and consulting services for government and international partners. Prior to that, he served as CEO of The Centre, a Kuala Lumpur-based think tank, where he led research on centrist, evidence-based policy solutions in areas such as online hate speech, drug policy and criminal justice reform, and social protection for gig worker.

Beyond his core roles, Khairil has contributed to several national policy committees, including the public hearing committee for the 2040 Kuala Lumpur Local Plan (PTKL2040) and the Ministry of Education’s focus group for the Malaysia Education Plan 2026–2035. He currently sits on the advisory board of the Department of Political Science at the International Islamic University Malaysia and serves as External Advisor to the Political Science and Diplomatic Studies programmes at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

He has a proven track record of leading high-performing teams and building multi-sector coalitions to influence policy, professionally driven by the mission to create a more just and inclusive society.