A gallery of photos from our 2017 Future PMO event can be found at the bottom of this this page.
Vince Hines – Wellingtone
Managing Director at Wellingtone
Vince Hines is the Managing Director of Wellingtone Ltd – the project management specialist recruitment, training and consultancy company. He has been helping organisations for many years and has worked with clients across all sectors in the UK and Europe helping them to improve their use of formal project and programme management tools and techniques.
Vince brings extensive real world project management experience into the training environment and has successfully trained hundreds of Project Managers.
Vince is recognised as a professionally qualified Member of the APM, Member of the Association for Cost Engineers and is a qualified PRINCE2 Practitioner.
Wellingtone’s goal is to work as a partner with clients to maximise their likelihood of project, programme and portfolio success. Whether this is helping to define a fit for purpose & practical project methodology, training people in best practice project management, helping clients to recruit project professionals or implementing Microsoft Technology solutions.
Peter Taylor – The Lazy Project Manager
Head of Global PMO at Kronos & Best-selling Author
Peter Taylor is a PMO expert who has built and led four global PMOs across several industries, and has advised many other organisations in PMO and PM strategy.
He is also the Author of the number 1 bests-selling project management book ‘The Lazy Project Manager’, along with many other books on project leadership, PMO development, project marketing, project challenges and executive sponsorship.
In the last 5 years, he has delivered over 250 lectures around the world in over 25 countries and has been described as ‘perhaps the most entertaining and inspiring speaker in the project management world today’.
His mission is to teach as many people as possible that it is achievable to ‘work smarter and not harder’ and to still gain success in the battle of the work/life balance.
More information can be found at www.thelazyprojectmanager.com – and through his free podcasts in iTunes.
Ash Sheikh – Robot Says Future
Executive Agile Coach & Culture Coach, Robot Says Culture
Ash creates and delivers successful outcomes for the world’s largest enterprise organisations by being relentlessly delivery focused and using a variety of Agile based skills and techniques. He has adapted and created these after encountering many real world challenges across a multitude of industries including Finance, Telecom, Airline, Music and Motor Sport. Ash believes that Change needs to be implemented in a way that the people in the organisation can accept and welcome rather than resist, he is an expert in creating change which is both holistic (creating healthy change) and accepted (so that the change, and investment in the change, sticks).
Ash says: “Underneath all of that, I’m you, I’m just another human making my way around this rock of ours. I believe in helping others overcome the challenges we all face, both organisational challenges and human challenges, I do that by talking and writing. Funnily enough, you can see me talk, right here at this talk!”
You can learn more from Ash and his articles about Organisational and Human challenges here. “Gaining knowledge is the first step to wisdom, sharing it is the first step to humanity” Unknown
Harry West – Microsoft
Partner Technology Strategy Manager, Microsoft
Harry has been at the forefront of technology for the last 13 years, helping organisations develop and execute technology programmes that drive transformation in public and private sector organisations across the UK, Europe, US, Australia and New Zealand. Today, Harry leads the UK Partner Technology Strategy team at Microsoft and is responsible for helping customers and partners on their journey digital transformation through Engaging Customers, Empowering Employees, Optimising Operations and Transforming Products.
Emma-Ruth Arnaz Pemberton – Wellingtone
Chair of the APM PMO SIG
Emma has more than 15 years’ experience in the project management industry and established her first PMO back in 2008. Since joining the APM, Emma-Ruth has been particularly active in the PMO industry. She strongly believes in the PMO as a key enabler of successful business.
Emma-Ruth created ERAP Consulting Ltd in 2014 with a vision of transforming PMO consultancy to align with the modern needs of business. She majors on collaboration – combining the process-driven world of PMO with the modern age of ‘here-and-now’ (focusing on the use of tools such as SharePoint and Office 365) – where information and support is available 24×7 at the touch of a button.
As Chair of APM PMO SIG Emma-Ruth is seeking to steer the PMO discipline from a traditionally administrative function to a fully embedded strategic business partner; for example, through curating events that inform and support this view, and enabling ‘PMO people’ to keep up with the exponential pace of business-related change.
Emma-Ruth actively embraces ‘out of the box’ thinking and often implements new ideas to prove a concept. Emma-Ruth has contributed to several publications including the Portfolio, Programme, and Project Offices (Axelos), Real Project Management (Peter Taylor), and several Microsoft Webinars as well as Wellingtone and PMO SIG’s recent State of Project Management Survey.
Robert Llewellyn
English Actor, Comedian and Writer
Robert Llewellyn is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Kryten in Red Dwarf. Still the show with the highest ever ratings for BBC2, the last series was made in 1998, but the long awaited movie is just around the corner.
Robert went on to present Channel 4’s Scrapheap Challenge. The engineering-based show featuring two teams competing to build a working machine from spare parts salvaged from a scrapyard.
Robert’s series Carpool started out as an online podcast. The show sees Robert interviewing celebrities whilst giving them a lift in his Hybrid Toyota. Past guests include Stephen Fry, Sir Patrick Stewart, Quentin Willson and Robert’s Red Dwarf co-stars. The podcasts proved so popular that comedy channel Dave took the series on.
Robert has a long string of writing credits, including Therapy and How to Avoid It, co-written with Nigel Planer. In 2008 he published Sold Out: How I survived a year of not shopping – based on his series of films on YouTube.
A technology entrepreneur at heart, with both a keen interest and eye on the future, Robert has devised the software application Womanwizard. It allows men to create a virtual wife, then experiment and learn about their relationship without putting any real world relationships at risk.
During his key note presentation, Robert will put the Future in Future PMO and inspire you to think differently.
Susan Palmer-Trew – The Open University
Head of Portfolio, The Open University
Susie has worked within or for Higher Education Institutions for 11 years, predominantly in project, change and strategy environments. Having recently taking over the leadership of the PMO at the Open University, Susie has championed collaborative and partnered approaches to improving the University’s project and change maturity. This success has recently been reflected in the OUs PMO being listed as a finalist for the APM 2017 award, PMO of the Year. Her personality and ambition drive her role as a catalyst, a game changer striving to achieve potential in both business and people.
Steve Butler – Allen & Overy
Portfolio & PMO Manager, Allen & Overy
Steve has worked with organisations such as Allen & Overy, Credit Suisse, Barclays Wealth, HSBC, the FT, the NHS, Vodafone, Orange, Gazprom, Zurich Insurance and Old Mutual Wealth – and with the PMI
He is on the Standards Board writing the next edition of the PMI Standard for Portfolio Management (due for publication November 2017), and is Co-Author on the Companion Practice Guide, due for publication early 2018.
Steve is also the current Chair of the UK Portfolio Management Forum and was on the governance board that created the Portfolio Management Professional certification (PfMP), and sits on the global assessment panel for PfMP applicants
Holds a Masters Degree in Strategic Management and is in his final year of his PhD, researching for a dissertation entitled “Complexity and its Impact on Portfolio Delivery”
Dr Andrew Schuster – PwC UK
Director Programme Assurance, PwC UK
Andrew has over 30-years experience developing and leading high-performing transformation programmes and business management units. As an Academic and Practitioner, he has contributed to the development of good management practice for topics including PMO Design and Implementation, benefit realisation, management of risk, agile project delivery assurance, portfolio management, innovation and risk, cyber security and projectification in the public sector. He is a Fellow of APM and committee member of the APM PMO SIG.
Rhys Lancaster – Tata Communications
Global Head of Project Management, Tata Communications
Currently heading the Global PMO at Tata Communications – part of the $130Bn Tata Group, and through a career spanning almost 2 decades in telecommunications at companies including AT&T and BT, Rhys has consistently seeked out ways of innovating, taking a different approach, to achieve the “impossible” through his field of passion – Project & Program Management.
Rhys is currently driving organizational change at Tata Communications to automate back end processes & systems, whilst moulding a team of PM experts who can guide Tata’s customers on their own digitalization journeys.
Justin Byrd – Fujitsu
Head of EMEIA Portfolio Office, Fujitsu
Justin leads the EMEIA Portfolio Office at Fujitsu; a team of over 200 project and PMO professionals delivering a range of PMO services to over 50 external customers across 5 countries, as well as underpinning Fujitsu’s internal change programmes. With a background in IT Transition Management, delivering Transition Programmes for Fujitsu and other IT companies, Justin jumped ship 6 years ago from delivery into the world of PMO. Developing a reputation from re-energising a small Project Office of just 3 people resulted in Justin building a solid and repeatable PMO solution across all of Fujitsu’s business which now brings together all PMO resources into a single shared service team delivering fully costed and measurable PMO services that improve the successful delivery of projects and programmes.
Alex Johnson – Ecolab
Vice President PMO Europe Supply Chain & Global Manufacturing, Ecolab
Alex Johnson is a transformation and turnaround specialist, focused on delivering programmes practically through people. He currently leads the global TPM continuous improvement programme at Ecolab, the global leader in water sustainability.
As Vice President PMO Europe Supply Chain & Global Manufacturing, Alex heads up Ecolab’s PMO team for all project, programme and portfolio activity across these areas. He also has responsibility for Ecolab’s Global Loss Analysis Programme to deliver $1billion operational efficiencies by 2020.
Prior to joining Ecolab Alex led regional transformation at Royal Mail, and more recently PMO & programmes for Europe & Africa Supply Chain at BP.
Alex lives in Brighton with his wife, two children and dog ‘Hector’. He switches off from the PMO world by playing beach volleyball and keeping fit with the local British Military Fitness team.
Tanya Ofonagoro – Selfridges
PMO Manager, Selfridges
Tanya has a solid and varied career in project and programme management spanning voluntary, government and commercial organisations both in the UK and abroad. Tanya is a senior PMO leader with lots of practical know how around setting up single projects or vast portfolios for success and seeing them through their life cycle to completion. She has also had the opportunity to grow extensive hands on experience through leading the delivery of major projects and programmes.
One of Tanya’s favourite activities is coaching and training colleagues towards adopting successful ways of working for project and programme management. Being an accredited workplace coach allows Tanya to work with colleagues to identify the challenges they face and provide effective support with developing action plans to resolve them.
A keen project enthusiast, Tanya keeps abreast of developments in the field and shares experience and new found best practice via requests from her network. She is always looking for innovative ways of doing things and bringing projects and programmes to life to help them land successfully.
Mike Webb – AWE
Head of Programme Management Office, Leidos
A retired bomb disposal expert, Mike Webb has spent the last 5 years developing a career with Serco, the global services outsourcing firm, working in roles including Risk Manager, Project Manager and Head of PMO for Serco’s Defence business unit in the UK. The most recent 2 ½ years have been as PMO & Projects Director, a role that saw Mike develop a team in delivering an enabling, integrated and intelligent PMO capability across Serco’s largest Division. On the 1st March, Mike Webb took up the role of Head of Corporate Change at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). In this role he has been tasked with institutionalising professional change management across the organisation. He is now Head of Programme Management Office at Leidos.
Mike’s philosophy on the PMO is that its success or failure can only be judged through what degree it enables the business to achieve its objectives. Beautiful governance for governance sake is useless, the successful PMO is one that is engaging, easy to interact with and perceived as ‘in the tent’. This philosophy saw a disparate group of feral projects pull together to a single portfolio aligned to Serco’s strategy and the growth of a PMO operating model that was well sponsored, core to operational delivery and a value proposition in its own right.
Mike lives in Wiltshire with his wife, three daughters and Jack Russell, Whiskey. He spends his free time avoiding all things PMO.
Marisa Silva – Wellingtone
The Lucky PM & Project Management Author
Marisa Silva, the Lucky PM, is an experienced PMO & PPM Consultant, Trainer, Author, and Speaker. She has a track record of establishing, embedding and maturing best-fit practices and building capabilities in complex organisations undergoing transformational business change. A passionate advocate of the value of PMOs as business partners and enablers of strategic change delivery, Marisa has developed her career from management consulting, with work experience gained internationally, across different industries.
Marisa holds a BSc in Management, a specialisation in Competitive Intelligence, a PgDip in Foresight, Strategy and Innovation, and is currently an MSc candidate in Strategic Management of Projects at University College London (UCL). Marisa’s main research interests focus on the topic of PMOs, future-oriented project management, sustainable project management, and organisational agility.
She is certified as a PMP®, PRINCE2®, MSP®, MoP®, P3O®, APMP® (IPMA-D), PMD® Pro Level 2, as well as a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP®) for MS Project, Microsoft PPM, and Project Server. In addition, Marisa is an active member of the project management community, being a blogger at ProjectManagement.com, a member of PMI®, APM®, subject matter expert representative in the Portuguese technical commission liaising with ISO/TC 258, founding member of the IIBA® Portugal Chapter, and having served as a volunteer with the PMI® Portugal Chapter.
Currently, she is a Committee Member of the APM PMO Specific Interest Group. A believer in the power of project management skills for social good, Marisa is also a mentor at Project Managers Against Poverty and PMO Manager and Programs Director at Project Managers Without Borders (PMWB).
Marisa is the author of ‘Bedtime Stories for Project Managers‘ and is the founder and managing director of in2PMO, a specialist PMO and business transformation consultancy firm dedicated to help organisations in their transformation journey by navigating change and building capabilities to deliver impactful and sustainable business value from their PMOs, projects and programs.
Baz Khinda – Wellingtone
Microsoft PPM Expert & Director at Wellingtone
Baz is an experienced Microsoft PPM Consultant and a Director at Wellingtone, a leading Microsoft PPM Gold Partner. In addition to this he also works closely with the Microsoft UK Project team as a P-SSP where he is often tasked with helping organisations address their PPM pains and increase their project management maturity.
He has been directly involved in a significant number of implementations across an array of organisations that span both private and public sectors as well as numerous verticals.
With his background, Baz is well versed in educating organisations on the benefits they can realise through Microsoft PPM.
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