2022 Symposium Speakers

Alicia is the GM Strategy Delivery & Governance, leading the ANZ Investment Management, Delivery Excellence, Value Assurance and Enterprise Risk Management functions.

Prior to her role at ANZ Alicia held the position of Chief Project Officer for Telstra, where she led the organisation's journey to establish project management as a stand-alone capability separate from IT, business and engineering skills.

Alicia spent several years as CEO, Human Systems International acquired by the Project Management Institute. Her experience ranges through several industries including Telecommunications, Banking & Finance, Defence & Aerospace, Pharmaceutical, Engineering & Construction, Mining, Oil & Gas and Government.

Alicia is the chairperson for the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM). She is an advisory board member for the Office of Projects Victoria as well Astrolabe, Pioneera and Cloudfloat. She holds a PhD in project management and psychology with a particular focus on how project managers cope with stress and a bachelor of business.

Scheduling: The Forgotten Art

Melissa Cyrulik is a Product Manager with the Software Products and Services Group at Tecolote Research, Inc. She is responsible for managing the software development, support, and training programs for ACEIT and the U.S. Army's Cost Research Hub. She is a cost analyst with over 25 years of experience supporting a wide range of offices and programs throughout the US defense and civilian federal government. She has specialized expertise in cost research, uncertainty analysis, and in teaching cost analysis topics. She holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston Massachusetts, and lives and works in the Washington D.C. metro area.

Hope is Not a Method: Using Uncertainty Analysis to Better Predict the Costs of Your Program

Travis is a project strategy practitioner and consultant with a focus on large-scale Defence, Infrastructure and ICT programs. His consulting work involves Portfolio Prioritisation, Program Evaluation and Improvement and the establishment of Portfolio, Program and Project Offices (P3O) to improve governance and delivery of large-scale Programs and Project Portfolios. He has worked locally for Federal and State governments, non-profit and private sector clients and internationally for the UN, World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

As a National Service Delivery Leader, Travis guides the development of TBH's P3M and Integrated Project Controls services suite. Travis also Leads TBH's Canberra office, servicing Federal and local Government Departments and Major Service providers. His clients include: The Department of Defence, Digital Transformation Agency, Australian Tax Office; Department of Finance; Department of Parliamentary Services; Department of Social Services; ACT Treasury; Transport Canberra and City Services; Housing ACT, Emergency Services; BAE, Telstra; Optus; Aurecon and Manteena..

Travis has previously presented at numerous Project Management Leadership conferences and the national conference of the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM).

CASG Integrated Investment Portfolio Integrated Master Schedule:
Strengthening Portfolio Visibility and Performance

Mr. Kranz is a research fellow supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense with research related to improving the Department's acquisition management policies and practices. He is a board member of the College of Performance Management, a non-profit organization serving performance management professionals. As the President of Enlightened IPM, he provides government agencies and contractors advice and guidance on performing disciplined, integrated program management on Agile programs. Before his current position, Mr. Kranz was the Deputy Director of OSD/AT&L/PARCA for Earned Value Management and provided policy and guidance to the US military acquisition enterprise. Mr. Kranz spent 16 years as chief engineer and program manager at General Dynamics C4 Systems and 11 years in the Air Force as a technical manager on tactical communications systems, strategic communications systems, and the F-22 program. He has an MS EE from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a BS in EE from North Dakota State University.

Integrating Project controls with Agile development

Dr Naomi Mathers is an Aerospace Engineer with broad experience across government, industry, academia and defence. She has contributed to the establishment of two key Australian space facilities, the Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre (Australia's national space environmental test facility) and the Victorian Space Science Education Centre (Australia's first dedicated space education facility) and supported the growth of the Australian space industry through various board positions, including the Space Industry Association of Australia, the International Space Education Board, and the Australian Government Space Industry Innovation Council.

Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome – Supporting the success of modern projects

Sirish is Head of Estimating and Benchmarking at the Infrastructure and Project Authority (IPA). Previous to this he was at National Highways as a Commercial Intelligence Manager and Estimating Manager, with experience in Cost Estimating & Modelling, Risk and Uncertainty management and Project Controls. He has held various positions in Rolls-Royce as a Programme Manager on implementing Single Source Contract Regulations (SSCR), an Estimating Specialist, Supportability Engineering Team Leader and Whole Life Cost Engineer. He is currently developing intelligence reporting, e.g. Benchmarking, using historical data across the UK Public Sector and introducing a career learning journey for the estimating profession.

Sirish is also Co-Chair of PsACE (Public Sector Advisory Community for Estimating), a group with 40 UK government departments and arms length bodies, who are passionate to share leading practice in estimating and move forward, together.

Using his current role, experience and network to introduce consistency in estimates across government projects and better benchmarking to achieve better project outcomes.

Standardisation and informed insights through effective collaboration

Steve is at the forefront of the development of national and international standards in Project Controls and Management. A genuine thought-leader. A super-connector. He gets things done.
He is a Chairman of the Management Standards committee of the British Standards Institution responsible for Project Programme and Portfolios. Currently progressing Project Controls and Benefits Management.

He is an internationally acknowledged expert on Earned Value Project Management. Most recently on the newly published ISO standards for EVM and WBS. Currently working on an ISO EVM Implementation Guide.

Steve works with government, national and international bodies and academia as a subject matter expert as well as on matters of governance. Also was one of the authors of Agile Portfolios with ABC. With his Guild of Educators hat on he is working with OECD and the City of London to introduce Fusion Skills internationally to children aged 7-70+

He is currently helping Responsible Project Management come into being - a more ethical conscientious approach to the benefits and impacts of projects. He is championing Circular Economies and Sustainability to combat Climate Change.

Steve has worked in the automotive, print aerospace, defence, insurance and I.T., industries as a project manager and consultant He was Chairman and led the Association for Project Management to their award of Royal Charter.

He is Chief examiner for EVM and Planning with APMG. He curates and chairs his own highly regarded EVA conferences. Now in its 26h year. Also curates the PMI UK's major Synergy event now in its 10th year.

Steve is a visiting lecturer at Warwick WMG, Cranfield University and University College London as well as the Moscow School of Economics.

He has a Master of Arts in Manpower specialising in the sociology and psychology of organisations.

Steve's life-long passion for all kinds of music is almost matched by his continued appreciation of silence.

BS202001: Project Controls – A personal view

Ciril Karo holds the position of Group Business Manager within the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group.

Ciril has over 30 years of experience in the Australian Defence Organisation, including 20 years in the Australian Army. He has been involved in Capability Development since 2003 where in Capability Systems Division he received his first introduction to the Defence Capability Plan, creating and running a prioritisation process to support the 2003 Defence Capability Review. Ciril also has considerable experience in the areas of Program Analysis and Control, Cost Analysis, Investment Analysis, Capability Life Cycle Design and Contestability.

Ciril's qualifications include a Master of Science in Operations Research from the US Naval Postgraduate School, a Master of Management from the University of Canberra, a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Mathematics from UNSW and a Graduate Diploma of Business Management from Deakin University.

TBA

Mick Spiers is the founder and principal of The Leadership Project. He is an experienced executive with a strong track record in the development of exceptional high performance teams.

Mick strongly believes that his success in business and life has been through the development and support of the people, teams and leaders around him.

He strongly values diversity of thought and encourages engagement and active participation from people from diverse backgrounds on all topics.

Manager AND Leader – balancing leadership and management for outstanding project success

Munir Ahmad Saeed is currently enrolled in Doctor of Project Management. His research is focused on investigating benefits realization practices in the Australian Public Sector Organizations. He is working as a lecturer at the College of Business, Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT). Saeed has a number of publications to his credit. His research interests include benefits management, project governance, cyber security, and big data.

Making Benefits Realisation A Project Success Criteria – Challenges in Practice

James has served time in the RAAF, the Defence APS, as a Senior Manager at a major Defence supplier and has spent the last 5 years as a senior consultant to Defence. He has 15 years' experience as a senior cost analyst in Defence, working on several complex major programs including AIR7000, LAND400, LAND200, Collins Class Submarine, CIOG's HKM and as a Project Director on the 2014 Force Structure Plan Investment Review amongst many other roles. James' work in the cost analysis field has led to multiple DMO CEO Commendations and CASG Gold Service Awards. With tertiary education spanning Engineering, Integrated Logistics Support, Finance and Project Management he is well placed to manage and understand the important linkages between capability life cycle and cost estimation.

Defence Cost Modelling - leveraging people and information to succeed

Edmund is project controls professional with over 15 years experience. His work experience has been purposefully diverse across multiple industries (including water, buildings, road and rail) and functions (namely project planning, cost control and project management). This has provided Edmund extensive knowledge and capability for developing and delivering projects.

Edmund is currently working on the Metro Tunnel Project in Melbourne as Integrated Program Manager. Beyond the integration of contracts and programs, Edmund's focus on collaboration and aligning the interests of all stakeholders is critical to the timely delivery of the state's flagship project.

Systems Thinking in Planning for Project Success

Wayne is the International Program Director for Project Management training for Priority Management and is also the Chair of the Priority Management Global Project Management development team.

Wayne has continuously received outstanding feedback from participants for his engaging and inclusive style. He is continually complimented on his communication skills and his clear and structured delivery of programs and how he links projects to his client's business objectives and company strategies.

Since 2011 Wayne has scheduled Capital projects with combined value of over five Billion Dollars. These Projects range from establishing Oil fields in Malaysia to the Treasury Track of the G20 summit, the Election ready Roadmap for AEC and includes over twenty oil rig refits in locations such as Dubai, Bahrain, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Scotland and Malaysia.

Using Objective Driven Logic to Create Resource Loaded Execution Plans

Kym Henderson is an accomplished information technology project manager and project controls manager experienced in the application of EVM on major Defence projects and on commercial sector projects utilising tailored, "EVM like" techniques. He is currently employed as an integrated project controls consultant – Defence by TBH Pty Limited, a specialist Australian project controls consulting organisation.
He has been a passionate global advocate for EVM (and Earned Schedule) which includes serving on the CPM Board from 2008 to 2019 as Vice President Research and Standards, Vice President Global Outreach and Executive Vice President.

In addition to presenting at many conferences and events, Kym personally promotes the adoption of EVM and Earned Schedule by teaching practical approaches to application with an "Applying Earned Value Concepts to Commercial Projects" course. This course has been taught at taught at various locations in Australia, the USA, Europe and the Asia Pacific region and was also part of PMI SeminarsWorld® program in 2005-2007.

The ISO EVM standard has globalized EVM and is a very significant development in promoting the worldwide adoption of the method which is regarded as a project controls "best practice".

ISO 21512 EVM Implementation Guidance

Val is a highly skilled risk management expert, with extensive experience of training, facilitating and implementing project, programme, product and business risk management systems for government and industry in the UK, EMEA, North America and APAC regions.

With more than 30 years' experience working with large organisations, Val has a wealth of practical experience and vision for how they can improve business performance through risk management framework and good practice. Val played a major part in the design and development of the Risk Decisions' Predict! Enterprise Risk Management software. She pioneered Risk Management Masterclass sessions for senior managers and Connecting Risk workshops for middle managers.

In order to spread good/best practice risk management, Val authors white papers, speaks at international conferences, sits on international working groups and is an advocate of collaborative working. She is the author of the Risk Intelligence (RQ) series of white papers.

Val is an excellent communicator, at all levels within an organisation, with a very practical approach to problem solving.

Who needs luck? How innovators thrive on risk and opportunity, leading the way to success

Walt Lipke retired from federal service with over 35 years of experience in the development, maintenance, and management of software for automated testing of avionics. As a manager, a career highlight was his organization's winning of the Software Engineering Institute / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers award for Software Process Achievement.

Mr. Lipke is a graduate of the USA DoD course for Program Managers. He is a professional engineer with a master's degree in physics, and is a member of the physics honor society, Sigma Pi Sigma. Lipke achieved distinguished academic honors with the selection to Phi Kappa Phi.

He is the creator of Earned Schedule (ES). Mr. Lipke has published over ninety articles on the method, as well as two books, Earned Schedule and Earned Schedule Plus. Additionally, he has presented[ research on ES and its schedule performance analysis methods at several conferences in the United States, and internationally.

For his contribution to project control, the practice of Earned Value Management, and the creation of ES, Mr. Lipke has received several awards:

• 2007 Project Management Institute Metrics Specific Interest Group Scholar Award
• 2007 Project Management Institute Eric Jenett Award for Project Management Excellence
• 2013 Earned Value Management Europe Award
• 2014 College of Performance Management Driessnack Distinguished Service Award

In 2017, the Australian Project Governance and Control Symposium honored Mr. Lipke by establishing the annual Walt Lipke Project Governance and Control Excellence Award. The award is made for excellence in research, expanding knowledge of the management and governance of projects, programs, and portfolios in Australasia.

Earned Schedule: Project Duration Increase from Rework

Rob McMartin is the PMO Manager for Hanwha Defense Australia and is an experienced PMO and Program Manager with expertise in program, project, general, facilities and contract management across a variety of projects from aviation, finance, utilities, property, events, logistics, public transport, environment, software development, defence and aerospace industries.

Rob is also Co-Chair of the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM), Managing Risk in Complexity (MRC), Special Interest Group (SIG).

Governance in Complex Projects

Craig has been working in and around projects for nearly 30 years. His first role in projects was in Production Engineering on the ANZAC ship build contract in the 1990's. Since then, Craig has been a Scheduler, a Project Manager, a Software Designer, a Salesperson, a CEO, a Trainer and held various other roles depending on what was needed to get the job done at the time.

Craig ran a project management software company from 2003 to 2020 and has trained a large number of people in various aspects of project management over the years.

Craig is currently consulting as a Project Controller to CASG where the scheduling of complex projects is once again first and foremost in his sights.

Making the Schedule Great Again

Pyrros is a certified manager of complex engineering programs and subject matter expert in costing capability for Major Defence Projects. He has over 10 years experience dealing with complex problems through undertaking a breadth of roles below and above-the-line across Defence, Mining and Metals, Buildings, Critical Infrastructure and Commercial Enterprises. His cross-disciplinary skillset, spanning across systems engineering, project management, asset management, test and evaluation, provides Pyrros with a unique disposition to perform abstraction of the 'Whole-of-Capability-Lifecycle' problem space.

Blackbox & Whitebox Estimating Techniques – Tips, Tricks & Pitfalls

Phil Rokic is a professional engineer and program manager with qualifications in Mechatronics engineering (Hons) and Computer science (University of Melbourne), Dipl. Of Marine Engineering Management (UNSW) and an MBA in Finance (AIB). Phil has 20 years of experience working with Defence both in uniform and as a management consultant, as a project manager in a COAG reform delivering wide-reaching regulatory reform in the commercial maritime sector and supporting a range of Federal Government departments based in Canberra. Phil is trying to get his kids to enjoy Lego so he can enjoy it again also, he has also been scuba diving for 20 years, both recreationally and professionally in the Cook Islands and in the RAN. Phil has recently branched out into a COO role with a Singaporean aquaculture start-up focussed on environmental benefits, and during COVID lockdown in 2021, started up his own entity to provide greater independence during the second half of his career.

Designing success in a national change program

RASMUS RYTTER is an author, speaker and renowned expert within benefits realisation and organisational change. His expertise and three books on the subject have helped a wide variety of companies and public organisations realise their benefit potential. Since 2013, he has been part of Implement Consulting Group as a partner, consultant and advisor. Before joining Implement, Rasmus worked for 10 years as a project manager, program manager and people manager. Rasmus has a master's degree from Aarhus University.

Leading Successful Change Projects

Shankar Sankaran PhD PMP® is a Professor of Organizational Project Management at the School of the Built Environment at the University of Technology Sydney. He teaches systems thinking to project managers at a Master of Project Management program and his research interests include sustainable development. He is a Past President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences and this talk is based on his work at the society to explore the future of project management with Professor Tomas Blomquist and Professor Mattis Jacobson of Umeå School of Business in Sweden as we face the challenges of achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals

Shankar is an editor of three books and author of two books about project management. He was the special editor of the Management and Organization Section of the Handbook of Systems Sciences and edited a book titled A guide to Systems Research – Philosophy, Processes and Practice to help researchers use systems methodologies. You can find more about Shankar at profiles.uts.edu.au/Shankar.Sankaran and Linkedin.com/in/shankar-sankaran-260320a/?originalSubdomain=au

Project Management started off as a management innovation. Can it transition to meet the sustainability challenge?

Dr Nitin Thakur has been with Providence Consulting Group as a Principal Consultant for five years. His current role in Defence is that of a Strategic Adviser across Force Design and Force Integration Divisions. Prior to joining Providence, for almost twenty years in Defence, Nitin was involved in strategic analyses and force structure review activities. He was part of the First Principles Review team that designed and operationalised the Force Design function in Defence. His educational training, with post-doctoral experience, is in Nuclear Physics, and he has completed the Defence Strategic Studies Course at the Australian War College.

Designing for less complexity

Roksana is a PhD candidate from the School of Engineering and Technology, based in Sydney. Roksana is also a Research Higher Degree mentor in the Research Higher Degree (RHD) Division. Roksana is researching how the employability skills of project management graduates can be improved by designing a reliable group-based assessment framework in higher education. Roksana won the CQUniversity round in 2020 and the People's Choice Award in 2020 and 2021 for the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. She achieved the Best Presentation Award in the 2019 and 2020 SET RHD symposia.

Professionally, Roksana is an academic in the College of Project Management at Central Queensland University. She has been teaching postgraduate project management students for the past 5 years. She has been awarded many Student Voice Commendation Awards for teaching excellence.

Critical Themes on Group-based Assessments to Improve the Job-readiness of Project Management Graduates

A/Prof. Xiaohua (Sean) Jin is an Associate Professor in Project Management at the School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment at Western Sydney University. Being a Fellow of the renowned UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA), Sean is the Director of Project Management Programs and teaches in both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Sean conducts research in the field of construction management and economics, particularly in the area of construction procurement, risk management, project management as well as workplace mental health and wellbeing. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in renowned journals and conferences and obtained competitive research grants/awards from international funding bodies and industry. Sean is currently supervising 10 doctoral students and is a leadership team member of the Center for Smart Modern Construction (c4SMC) at Western Sydney University. He is also an active member the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB), the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), and the International Centre of Complex Project Management (ICCPM). Prior to joining WSU, Sean had worked at Deakin University and the University of Melbourne. Sean had also worked as a project manager in Shanghai China.

www.westernsydney.edu.au/staff_profiles/uws_profiles/doctor_xiaohua_jin

Mental Health of Project Management Practitioners in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Projects during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ceilidh Armer is a Senior Consultant with TBH Pty Ltd.

Ceilidh has been employed by TBH for four years and has worked on several large and complex projects with a focus on project planning and scheduling, program reporting and supporting PMO implementations.

These projects included network transformation, voice transformation, data centre builds, and enabling services.

She is currently a member of the Hunter Class Frigate Branch Scheduling team with her primary responsibility being to maintain, further develop and enhance the SEA5000-1 IMS.

SEA5000-1 Integrated Master Schedule Case Study

Louise Gardner has been supporting large organisations and government agencies with PMO and Project Controls for more than 20 years. Passionate about ensuring the Project Management Office is a value adding function, Louise established Pledge Consulting in 2012.

In the last couple of years Pledge have supported some of the most exciting projects in Australia including Western Sydney Airport, the Intelligent Congestion Management Program and CBD-South East Light Rail. They also run PMO as a Service for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and Toyota.

Building a Culture of Agile Governance

Melissa Cyrulik is a Product Manager with the Software Products and Services Group at Tecolote Research, Inc. She is responsible for managing the software development, support, and training programs for ACEIT and the U.S. Army's Cost Research Hub. She is a cost analyst with over 25 years of experience supporting a wide range of offices and programs throughout the US defense and civilian federal government. She has specialized expertise in cost research, uncertainty analysis, and in teaching cost analysis topics. She holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston Massachusetts, and lives and works in the Washington D.C. metro area.

Presentation: Joint Agency Cost Schedule Risk Uncertainty Handbook (JA CSRUH)

Mr. Kranz is a research fellow supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense with research related to improving the Department's acquisition management policies and practices. He is a board member of the College of Performance Management, a non-profit organization serving performance management professionals. As the President of Enlightened IPM, he provides government agencies and contractors advice and guidance on performing disciplined, integrated program management on Agile programs. Before his current position, Mr. Kranz was the Deputy Director of OSD/AT&L/PARCA for Earned Value Management and provided policy and guidance to the US military acquisition enterprise. Mr. Kranz spent 16 years as chief engineer and program manager at General Dynamics C4 Systems and 11 years in the Air Force as a technical manager on tactical communications systems, strategic communications systems, and the F-22 program. He has an MS EE from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a BS in EE from North Dakota State University.

Presentation: Integrating Agile with project controls on major projects

Mick Spears is the founder and principal of The Leadership Project. He is an experienced executive with a strong track record in the development of exceptional high performance teams.

Mick strongly believes that his success in business and life has been through the development and support of the people, teams and leaders around him.

He strongly values diversity of thought and encourages engagement and active participation from people from diverse backgrounds on all topics.

Presentation: High Performance Leadership