Meet our lecturers - Dean Mallaburn

After graduating from college, Dean followed his passion for cars to start his career in the automotive industry.

A two-year apprenticeship on car body works introduced him to the welding and coating processes before he moved to Eurocopter, where he gained experience in painting and coating of helicopters and small aircraft.

Ready to explore his opportunities overseas, he was offered a working holiday visa for 2 years in Australia, which took him to the Central Systems company, where he was exposed to a wide range of painting and coating applications for concrete surfaces as well as working on the set up of a mining factory that helped him sharpen his welding skills. During this period, he got his MMA welding certificate as well as BGAS-CSWIP Blast Cleaning/Preparation Operative Grade 5A and BGAS-CSWIP Protective Painter/Sprayer Operative Level 5B certificates from TWI.

Upon his return to Malaysia in 2014, he came back to TWI to get certified for painting inspection. It was here that his lecturer, Nurul Zaman, discovered him as the most suitable candidate to join the recognised qualifications. After a few weeks of training and co-lecturing in the UK, Dean was ready to deliver a painting inspector course in Malaysia.

Having a wealth of hands-on experience, Dean could now bring the practical element to the class and deliver the course using on the job examples to make students better understand the theories.

Passionate about his career development, Dean decided to put his welding knowledge and experience to use, taking visual welding inspector training which led him to deliver welding inspection courses.

Dean started his career at TWI as a BGAS-CSWIP programme consultant before being promoted to coating team leader. He now works as the global product manager for painting and coating, as well as a regional programmes manager for TWI, with an outstanding track record of more than 7000 lecturing hours.

Dean loves teaching and believes that it is a great cause. He enjoys the interaction with candidates, including hearing from their experience in the field and learning about their areas of work.

He has taught in 11 different countries throughout South East Asia and now is looking to bring cathodic protection as well as plastic welder and inspector training to the region. He is currently working as the team leader on a new protective coating inspector (PCI) programme, governed by CSWIP, which will be launched globally once ready.