Datuk Ir. (Dr.) Abdul Rahim Hj. Hashim is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya (UM). Prior to this appointment, he was the Vice Chancellor of the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS since 1 November 2012.
He graduated in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom in 1976 and later received an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering from the same university in 2006.
He worked for PETRONAS for 32 years from September 1976 to December 2008 and held some important and key positions. These include MD/CEO of PETRONAS Penapisan Melaka and Malaysian Refining Company (1991-1998), Vice President of Human Resource Management (1998-2002), Vice President of Gas Business (2002-2006) and Vice President Research and Technology (2006-2008). He was also the Technical Manager (1982-1987) and Refinery Manager (1987-1988) for PETRONAS Penapisan (Terengganu) Sdn Bhd, the PETRONAS first refinery at Kerteh.
As a professional engineer, he sat on the Board of Engineers Malaysia and was the Chairman of the Engineering Accreditation Council of Malaysia (2007-2012). He is currently an Advisor of Institute of Materials Malaysia, a Fellow and a Council Member of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, a member of the Board of Engineers National Monitoring Committee, a Chairman of National Precision Tooling Sdn. Bhd, a board member of Deleum Berhad, a public listed company and a Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau MyCEB’s Kesatria.
In October 2016, he was admitted as a William Pitt Fellow by the Pembroke College of Cambridge. He is the Past President of the International Gas Union (2009-2012), the Immediate Past President of the Malaysian Gas Association (2003-2015) and Past President of the Asia Pacific Natural Gas Vehicle Association (2003-2009). He has also attended the Harvard Advanced Management Program in 1997.