Genovasi University - History

Genovasi was established in Year 2012 through the vision of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, through the combined efforts of the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Founder Chairman of a renowned multinational corporation (MNC) founded in Malaysia which consists of 3 Public Listed Corporations and a Group of Private Limited Companies.

Genovasi is the ONLY University in Malaysia granted by the Ministry of Higher Education and the Government of Malaysia to offer all its programs based on Dual Mode i.e., Conventional as well as (Open) Online and Distance Learning (ODL) in Year 2017. 

Over a short period of less than 10 years, Genovasi had trained more than 15,000 students and trainees consisting of the government and civil servants, management and staff members of public and private listed companies from both Malaysia and overseas.

Historical Timeline

historical timeline genovasi

Genovasi was established in Year 2012 through the vision of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, through the combined efforts of the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Founder Chairman of a renowned multinational corporation (MNC) founded in Malaysia which consists of 3 Public Listed Corporations and a Group of Private Limited Companies.

Genovasi is the ONLY University in Malaysia granted by the Ministry of Higher Education and the Government of Malaysia to offer all its programs based on Dual Mode i.e., Conventional as well as (Open) Online and Distance Learning (ODL) in Year 2017. 

Over a short period of less than 10 years, Genovasi had trained more than 15,000 students and trainees consisting of the government and civil servants, management and staff members of public and private listed companies from both Malaysia and overseas.

Our Journey

2012
Launch of Genovasi

The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato’ Sri Mohammad Najib Tun Razak launched Genovasi to equip Malaysians with an innovator’s mindset using the Design Thinking methodology.

2013
First batch of Innovation Ambassadors

We trained our first batch of Innovation Ambassadors under the Innovation Ambassador Development Program (IADP), now known as the Design Thinking Innovation Ambassador (DTIA) program.

2014
Top 10 most inspiring offices in Malaysia by Star Property

Genovasi named amongst industry giants :- Steelcase Kuala Lumpur, Google HQ Kuala Lumpur, Nike sales office and MindValley.

2015
Partnership with Singularity University for the Global Impact Competition

The annual competition held for the 2nd time in Malaysia and was organised by Genovasi. These competitions act as a platform to identify outstanding entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists and engineers with the most innovative ideas and the winner receives a scholarship to attend the Graduate Studies Program (GSP) at Singularity University. This competition offers Malaysians the platform to showcase their ideas that leverages technology that would impact a million in the future.

2016
Public-private partnership

Genovasi is now governed under a public-private partnership between Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM) through Genovasi Foundation with Ancom Berhad. Under this partnership, we are known as Genovasi Malaysia. It is the holding company for Genovasi University College

2017
Genovasi University College, Genovasi 5 Years On and Founding member of the Global Design Thinking Association (GDTA)

Design Thinking dedicated university, It aims to develop a future generation that will play a prominent role in realising the ambitions set forth in the Malaysian Education Blueprint and IR4.0.

We celebrated our 5th year anniversary. The Prime Minister announced that Sarawak will be the first state in Malaysia to embrace Design Thinking in their state civil service, and pledged to send more government officers to attend our programs as part of the Design Thinking Embedment Program (DTEP)

Genovasi Malaysia is a founding member of the GDTA, established to maintain global standards of Design Thinking training and practice. The first initiative under the GDTA is the Coach Exchange Programme (CEP), where selected coaches from the d.schools go on a cross-cultural exchange to develop and further enhance coaching practices

2018
Coach Exchange Program (CEP)

The 1st CEP was initiated with the coaches from Genovasi guiding participants in HPI d.school. The program allowed the opportunity to share our home-grown success stories with the coaches in the network

2019
GDTA Global Secretariat Goes Live!

Celebrated the appointment of Genovasi Malaysia as Global Secretariat. The honor validated the trust with Genovasi assisting the establishment of design thinking global network. During the event we also held the graduation for The Royal Malaysian Navy and The Royal Malaysian Police participants.

2020
ROTU - Reach Out The Use

The program was initiated during Movement Control Order (MCO) to assist the new norm situation difficulties faced by public. ROTU has succesfully reached out to individuals with different problems by offering solutions during the difficult period. This one of its kind program applied design thinking through live virtual class delivery.