Project Podcast

Emma meets Beth West, CEO of East West Rail, a transport project that will open up a corridor from Oxford, through Milton Keynes and Bedford, to Cambridge and connect the UK’s two leading life sciences and tech hot spots. Contact us: apmpodcast@thinkpublishing.co.uk  

In this episode, Emma meets Jo Jolly, Deputy Director and Head of Project Futures at the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, who recently spoke at APM's Change Changes conference. Everything is touched by projects, Jo told the audience. The UN Sustainable Development Goals should be actions for all our projects: we can do these things if we want to. Listen to hear Jo share how project deliv...

Emma meets Dan Jennings, who recently established a project management office at the UK wing of global media agency Wavemaker. His team has worked on everything from Evian campaigns tied to the Wimbledon tennis tournament to delivering product placement within Married at First Sight on Channel 4. As those creative projects have become more complex, whether through multi-platform content partnershi...

Emma meets Carmel McConnell MBE – a change activist and keynote speaker at the upcoming APM Conference on 8 June in Birmingham. Carmel founded the charity Magic Breakfast; she is a tech entrepreneur, mentor to CEOs and best-selling author of Change Activist: Make Big Things Happen Fast . Find out more about the APM Conference at www.apm.org.uk/apm-conference/ Contact us: apmpodcast@thinkpublishing...

Emma meets three project professionals (Alex Constantine, Clare Hornsby and Natalie Talbot) to discuss what it’s like to be an introvert in a project profession that seems to favour extroverts, at least on the surface. This situation leaves many introverts having to fake it and suffer the consequences. So, isn’t it time things changed? Read more about introverts in the project profession in the sp...

Emma meets Adrian Dooley, who has 45 years’ experience in project management. Adrian started out his career as a construction project manager, later becoming involved in developing software applications for construction. In 1984, he set up the Projects Group as a training and consultancy company. He was one of the founders of Project Manager Today magazine and served as an executive council member...

Professor Adam Boddison (APM Chief Executive) meets Nick Smallwood, CEO of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA). The IPA oversees the UK’s National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline, which contains hundreds of billions of pounds of public and private infrastructure investment. It also supports the Government Major Projects Portfolio, made up of projects with high levels of comple...

Emma meets Haukur Ingi Jónasson, Professor of Project Management at the University of Reykjavik, where he runs its Master’s in Project Management (MPM) course. The MPM is helping create the project professionals needed to take Iceland through its latest transformation. You can read all about it in the spring 2023 issue of Project journal. Haukur talks to Emma about his unusual entry into project m...

Emma meets Vip Vyas, co-author of Gorilla in the Cockpit: Breaking the hidden patterns of project failure and the system for success. Vip is founder of a company that specialises in breakthrough performance on large projects. He's been a visiting consultant at London Business School and an executive consultant at Said Business School at the University of Oxford. His book is the product of 25 years...

Emma welcomes back Bent Flyvbjerg to talk about his new book, How Big Things Get Done: The surprising factors behind every successful project, from home renovations to science exploration . Bent formulated the ‘iron law of megaprojects’, which contends that $1bn-plus megaprojects will almost always blow their budget and schedule and yield fewer benefits than promised. His new book outlines how the...

This special episode is guest hosted by Emma-Ruth Arnaz-Pemberton, chair of APM’s PMO Specific Interest Group, and Director of Consulting Services at Wellingtone. She’s in conversation with Catherine Lumb of Openreach. The Fibre and Network Delivery PMO at Openreach was the recipient of APM’s 2022 PMO of the Year award. The judges praised the PMO for “working on relationships and on accessible way...

‘A sense maker in a daft world’ is how today’s guest, Eddie Obeng, describes himself. Eddie is a Visiting Professor at Henley Business School, an esteemed columnist for Project journal and an APM Honorary Fellow. He's also learning director at the virtual business school Pentacle, a TED speaker and co-founder of Qube. A new edition of his book All Change! The project leader's secret handbook is ou...

Emma meets Belinda Parmar, founder and CEO of The Empathy Business, who was also the keynote speaker at APM’s Women in Project Management Conference in September. Belinda uses the science of empathy to change the way we lead at work, changing cultures to bring more empowerment to people's lives, with a focus on belonging and diversity. Belinda is also the creator of the Global Empathy Index, publi...

In 2022, our podcast guests have shared their advice and experiences on everything from putting telescopes into space to discovering sunken ships at the bottom of the Antarctic Sea. As the year draws to a close, we thought it would be worthwhile taking a look back at some of the lessons we learnt in 2022. So in this festive bonus episode, we collate some of our favourite highlights from episodes y...

In this episode, APM Chief Executive Professor Adam Boddison meets Craig Hatch, President at Tetra Tech UK. Tetra Tech is a global technology, environmental and management consultancy, with over 20,000 employees worldwide. The pair discuss the need for greater inclusivity in the profession, the state of project expertise at C-Suite level, and the importance of delivering long-term value to communi...

In this episode, Emma meets Annie Hairsine, the project management brains behind the fabulously successful Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this summer. The Games were filled with colour and energy and were billed as the most sustainable and diverse Games ever, but what was it like to pull off this huge undertaking and will the city of Birmingham be able to capitalise on its legacy? Read more abou...

In the second of our follow-up podcasts from the APM Women in Project Management Conference, Emma invites three senior leaders from the world of projects who contributed to WIPM. They share their experience to help those starting out in their career and also give their tips for women on how to rise to the top of the profession. Joining Emma are: Sam Olsen, DWP Estelle Detrembleur, Mace and APM’s R...

For this podcast, Emma invited three high-flyers from the world of projects who also contributed to APM’s Women in Project Management Conference this year, which was a terrific success and a really buzzy event. This follow-up podcast gathers together their career tips for project professionals so that you can benefit from their wonderful advice. On the panel are: Jacqueline Okuyemi-Daniel, Tetra T...

In this episode, Emma meets three of the profession’s bright young things – Stacey Bishop (SSE Renewables), Ashlyn O’Riordan (Turner & Townsend) and James Patraiko (Corre Energy). They share the younger generation’s biggest concerns, expectations and hopes for their career. What do they want older generations to understand about them? What is it about the project profession that motivates them...

In this episode, Emma meets Kristina Bull, a Partner at QSA Partners, a B Corp consultancy with a mission to help organisations to implement circular economy business models. A project professional with a focus on sustainability, Kristina currently advises clothing brands and retailers and how to become more truly sustainable. She also works on the Cotton Lives On initiative, a recycling programme...

This episode sees Professor Adam Boddison, APM Chief Executive, in conversation with the Right Honourable Justine Greening. Justine served as an MP from 2005 to 2019. During her time in politics, she held positions including Secretary of State for Education, Minister for Women and Equalities and Secretary of State for International Development. In this podcast, Adam and Justine discuss the definit...

In this episode, Emma meets Sarah Coleman and Andrew Schuster to talk assurance management. Sarah is a Chartered Project Professional and Fellow of APM and PhD researcher, and Andrew is the National Director of Transformation Risk and Advisory at PwC Canada. Sarah and Andrew co-authored the recent APM Research report Value of Assurance Management Practices , which you can download here . What dist...

This episode sees Adam Boddison, APM chief executive, in conversation with Joanna Rowland, Director General for Transformation at HMRC. The pair discuss the evolution of the project profession within government, the skills and experience required to thrive in a project role and misconceptions surrounding the profession. Jo also shares her career origins, including her time with the police, and her...

In this episode, Andrew Saunders, business journalist and regular contributor to Project journal, sits down with Mark Wild, ex-CEO of Crossrail. Mark took over as CEO of Crossrail in 2018 at a time of highly publicised budget and deadline overruns. Fast-forward to May this year, and Mark stepped down as CEO following the long-delayed but much-celebrated opening of the Elizabeth Line. Having succes...

Project journal Editor Emma De Vita meets Nico Vincent, Subsea Project Manager for the Endurance22 expedition, which on 5 March found the wreck of Endurance , Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, which sank off the coast of Antarctica 107 years ago. The wreckage was discovered at a depth of 3,008m, around four miles south of where it was reported to have been lost by Frank Worsley, Endurance’s captain, i...