Leila Rostom

Country Leader - Cambodia | Head of Commercial Management

Leila is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor (FRICS) with 15 years of international experience in construction consulting, project controls and commercial management. As Head of Commercial Management across COVA’s regional operations, she leads market strategy, cost control and project delivery across diverse international territories.

Leila holds an MBA (Distinction) from UCEM and a First-Class Honours degree from the University of Cape Town. She specialises in FIDIC contracts, Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) structures and full-lifecycle cost consultancy.

Her expertise encompasses risk management, BIM-integrated workflows and sustainable building frameworks, applied to optimise commercial performance and drive regional growth.

Leila leads COVA Cambodia from Exchange Square in central Phnom Penh, a RICS-registered practice that has operated in Cambodia since 2010 and was established as COVA Cambodia in 2018.

She speaks regularly on the profession’s direction. At the 2025 QS Summit in Manila, hosted by the Philippine Institute of Certified Quantity Surveyors, she argued that the quantity surveyor must evolve from measurer to strategic commercial leader and the client’s guardian of value. She represented COVA Cambodia at the UN Women workshop on the Women’s Empowerment Principles in 2025, and in March 2026 joined the UN Women and EuroCham Cambodia International Women’s Day panel as COVA Cambodia signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles.