Plenary Speakers

PMI Research Conference 2010 will feature presentations, symposia and poster sessions delivered by over 60 leading project management scholars. In addition, each day of the conference will feature insightful presentations by distinguished plenary speakers. With a focus on the Defining the Future of Project Management theme, ideas discussed in this conference will impact the future of the profession—today.

Please return to this website for schedule announcements and information updates. Speakers and topics are subject to change.

Plenary Speakers

Implementing Project Management in Government:  Successes, Challenges, and Needs.

Focus of the Symposium:

• How and why have some agencies in government successfully embraced PM and others have not?  
• What are the human resource needs relevant to project management in government? Is there critical knowledge and are there specific skills necessary to implement PM in a government setting that are missing in new hires? 

Symposium Composition:  The composition of the panel is designed to reflect the:

• Contrasting views of project management in the government sector in two countries, the US and the UK (where project management in government has been institutionalized relative to the US).
• Perspectives of educational leaders in business and engineering, two disciplines in which project management is practiced, whose graduates often function in the role of project managers and apply the principles of the field.

Panel Participants:

• Ed Hoffman, Director, NASA Academy of Program/Project and Engineering Leadership (APPEL), who will moderate the symposium, is responsible for the development of program/project and engineering leaders and teams within NASA.
• Stephen Henwood, Chairman of the Board, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in the UK. The NDA is is a non-departmental public body, responsible for the decommissioning and clean-up of the UK's civil public sector nuclear sites. Its sponsoring government department is the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC);
• Paul Boscoe – Director, Office of Engineering and Construction Management (OECM), the Department of Energy's central management organization providing leadership in mission critical areas such as project and real property management. It validates performance baselines, to include cost and schedule, of all of the Department’s largest construction projects prior to Budget Request to Congress; projects totaling approximately $60 billion.
• Rolland Langley – Executive Vice President, PTC Inc, responsible for nuclear energy and power and management issues.  He previously served as President and CEO of BNFL Inc., subsidiary of major nuclear energy industry leader, British Nuclear Fuels plc., and was Senior Vice President and Partner of The Bechtel Group with executive management responsibility for nuclear energy, waste management, and manufacturing operations for Bechtel National, Inc.
• Terry Williams – Professor of Management Science and Director, School of Management, Southampton University, UK
• George List – Professor and Chair, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University, USA

Specific Questions to be discussed include:

• What are the challenges facing young professionals entering the field of project management with respect to the workforce, complexity of projects, and the increasing demands of the political and social environments on projects, and what  training requirements might be needed in these areas?
• What are the lessons learned when a newly created organizational entity with government replaces the traditional “way of doing things” with a much greater focus on project management?
• What are the social, cultural, organizational characteristics/ conditions that may influence the adoption of project management within various units of governmental organizations? What cultural characteristics mitigate against or invite the adoption of project management?  
• What skills do students need to operate in a global project management marketplace with respect to customers, team members, stakeholders, and how are universities responding to these needs?   Where do gaps in the curriculum exist?

Format:  Brief presentations by three practitioner panelists along with responses by two academic panelists; remainder of the two hour session devoted to discussion among panelists and between the panel and the audience.

Implementing Project Management in Government:  Successes, Challenges, and Needs will be presenting on Monday, July 12 from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM

Dr. Kathleen Eisenhardt is the Stanford W. Ascherman M.D. Professor at Stanford University and co-director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Professor Eisenhardt’s work centers on strategy and organization, especially in technology-based companies and high-velocity industries.

She is a co-author of Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos (Harvard Business School Press), winner of the George R. Terry award for outstanding contribution to management thinking and named one of the top 10 business and investing books by Amazon.com. Professor Eisenhardt also has published in a variety of academic and management journals. She was the first author featured in Harvard Business Review’s OnPoint collections.

Professor Eisenhardt’s research focus is on strategy and organization in uncertain, volatile markets, with particular emphasis on complexity and network theories. She is currently studying the use of heuristics in strategies, the creation of synergies in multi-business corporations, building alliance portfolios by entrepreneurial firms, and the globalization of entrepreneurial firms.

In 2009, she received the career Scholarly Contribution Award from the Academy of Management as well as from the Organization and Management Theory division. She has also received numerous awards including, the Irwin Award for her contributions in strategy, the ASQ Scholarly Contribution award for the most influential paper five years after publication, and Strategic Management Society’s Schendel Best Paper prize. She was recently noted as most cited research author in the domain of strategy and organization studies in the past 25 years. Professor Eisenhardt also consults at senior levels on strategy and organization for a variety of global corporations.

Dr. Kathleen Eisenhardt’s presentation will focus on the opportunities and challenges of theory building from cases.

Dr. Kathleen Eisenhardt will be presenting on Tuesday, July 13th from 11:40AM to 12:40AM.

Dr. Lisa Lahey is associate director of the Change Leadership Group at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University and co-founder and co-director of Minds at Work. An expert in adult development and an experienced practicing psychologist and educator, she works with leaders and leadership teams in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. With a doctorate from Harvard University in developmental psychology, she combines her expertise of individual development with a deep knowledge of organizational psychology and teamwork.

Lahey is credited with a breakthrough discovery of a hidden dynamic, the “immunity to change,” which impedes personal and organizational transformation. Her work helps people to close the gap between their good intentions and behaviors. This work has now found its way into the practice of leaders, senior teams and individuals in business, governmental, and educational organizations in the United States, Europe and Asia. Lahey and Kegan recently received from Boston University the Gislason Award for exceptional contributions to organizational leadership, joining past recipients Warren Bennis, Peter Senge and Edgar Schein.

Lahey is the author of Immunity to Change: How to Overcome it and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization with Robert Kegan (2009), and How The Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work with Robert Kegan (2001). She is also co-author of Change Leadership: A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools (2006).

Dr. Lahey’s presentation will focus on the strategies for closing the gap between intentions and behavior in personal and organizational transformation.

Dr. Lisa Lahey will be conducting a workshop on Sunday, July 11th from 2:30PM to 5:30 PM.

Dr. Charles Pellerin, a former Director of Astrophysics for NASA, is a well known project management thought leader who contends that, if projects fail, they do so mainly as a result of social and leadership issues. Since his retirement from NASA in 1995, Dr. Pellerin has been developing a leadership/culture assessment and learning system that focuses on the resolution of project leadership issues as they arise.

Dr. Pellerin served as the NASA Director of Astrophysics managing an annual budget of $750 Million a year for contracted work. He received an Outstanding Leadership Medal from NASA and the Space Flight Award from the American Astronautical Society for implementing the Great Observatories Program.

NASA awarded Dr. Pellerin a second Outstanding Leadership Medal, an honor bestowed on fewer than 50 people (including astronauts) in NASA’s history, for mounting the first Hubble Servicing Mission. Hubble is now in its 19th year of productive scientific research.
As associate deputy administrator, he developed NASA’s post-cold war strategy, for which NASA bestowed on him its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Media.”

In 1995, Dr. Pellerin founded “4-D Systems” to enhance and promote project team performance. His recent book,How NASA Builds Teams, extends the 4-D System to anyone who wants to be more effective in his or her life and work.

Dr. Charles Pellerin will be presenting on Wednesday, July 14th from 1:05PM-2:05PM.