Professor Richard J Badham
Professor Richard J Badham is Professor of Project Leadership in the School of Project Management and Director of the Executive Leadership in Major Projects Program in the John Grill Institute at the University of Sydney. His academic research is focused on leading innovation and change, with particular attention to power and politics, paradox and irony in leadership development.
Richard has held appointments as Professor of Management and Associate Dean Research at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Director of the Centre for Managing Change and Foundation BHP Professor of Innovation at Wollongong University and Senior Von Humboldt Fellow at the Fraunhofer IPK (Berlin). He has developed and led innovation projects and leadership programs for the European Commission, the West German Government, Datacom, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse at RPA, BHP Steel, Ford, James Hardies and Hoover, as well as numerous other government agencies and corporations in Australia and worldwide. He is the author of the best selling academic text Power, Politics and Organizational Change (Sage Third Edition 2020), the forthcoming book Ironies of Organizational Change (Edward Elgar, 2022) and Theories of Industrial Society (Routledge Classics in Social Theory, 2014) as well as over 100 academic articles, book chapters and commissioned documentaries and short plays on organizational innovation and change.
Dr Marzena Baker
Dr Marzena Baker is a Lecturer in project management and an acting Director External Engagement at the School of Project Management, the University of Sydney. Marzena’s background extends across the academia and the corporate business sector. In her work, she draws upon her professional and leadership skills, gained over the past 20 years in a successful career in manufacturing, construction, and property sectors, to advance the project management and leadership discipline.
Her passion for workplace diversity and inclusion and promoting women to organisational leadership roles is reflected in her research focus on effective diversity policies, initiatives and practices leading to individual and organisational performance outcomes in project organisations.
Her industry experience and ability to understand and engage industry organisations delivers research that produces knowledge capable of helping shape the future of workforce diversity in Australia’s project organisations and beyond. Her research has been published in leading project management and management journals.
Dr Ken Chung
Dr Ken Chung is the director of the Undergraduate Project Management Program at the School of Project Management, the University of Sydney. His current research focuses on improving stakeholder engagement in infrastructure development. A social network researcher by training, his work on the novel use of social network analysis (SNA) for stakeholder engagement and improved project delivery was nominated as finalist for best paper award at the IRNOP 2017 conference, and featured at PMI Academic Conference 2017. He was featured as guest speaker to the Australian Institute of Project Management NSW Chapter’s Thought Leadership forum on the topic of “Social Network Analysis in Projects: A novel model for Stakeholder Engagement” and has won funding in this research area from the Project Management Institute, USA in 2019.
Prior to academia, Ken managed multi-million dollar projects in the Information Communication Technology and Software development industry, partnering with organisations from Telstra, IBM, Cisco, Accenture, Protocom Technologies, and Google. Having had over a decade of academic experience in both the Postgraduate and Undergraduate levels in Project Management, Information Systems, Management and Technologies, Ken was instrumental in the leadership of the first ever Bachelor of Project Management degree at the University of Sydney, which launched in 2012.
Professor Stewart Clegg
Stewart Clegg is Professor at the University of Sydney in the School of Project Management and the John Grill Institute. He is a leading international researcher recognised in several fields in the social sciences for his work in organisation studies, power and project management. Stewart is a prolific writer and contributor of over 300 articles to top-tier journals and is the author or editor of over 50 books.
In addition to Project Management: A Value Creation Approach, hehas recently published volumes onParadoxes of Power and Leadership; Organizational Paradox Theory; Positive Organizational Behaviour; Media Management and Digital Transformation; Theories of Organizational Resilience and Management; Historical Organization Studies: Theory and Applications as well as Organizations and Contemporary Social Theory, with various colleagues.
Professor Lynn Crawford
Professor Lynn Crawford has worked extensively with leading corporations and government agencies, assisting them in project capability development through global knowledge networks. Ongoing research includes project and program based competence and careers, productivity, governance, and disaster management.
Lynn was instrumental in the formation of the Global Alliance for the Project Professions (GAPPS) and is a Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), an Honorary Fellow of the APM (UK) and recipient of their Sir Monty Finniston award for lifetime achievement in contributing to project management practice and research.
Professor Andrew Davies
Professor Andrew Davies is the RM Phillips Freeman Chair and Professor of Innovation Management in SPRU, University of Sussex Business School. He is Honorary Professor the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London (UCL) and Visiting Professor in the Department of Business and Management, LUISS, Rome. In 2020 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Project Management and in 2018 he was Distinguished Visiting Scholar (2018) in the School of the Built Environment within the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney.
Professor Davies is a researcher, educator, consultant and advisor who is fascinated by understanding and making innovation happen in complex megaprojects, with a focus on large-scale infrastructure in the built environment such as railway, metro, highways, utility systems, national heritage buildings, Olympics and urban developments. He has developed high-level research collaborations with leaders of some of the UK’s largest infrastructure projects including Heathrow (T5, T2 and 3rd runway), London Olympics, Crossrail, Thames Tideway Tunnel, High-Speed 1 & 2 and Westminster Palace Restoration and Renewal Project. His work shows that successful performance depends on a highly capable owner and leadership team, developing and supporting innovation, and establishing the capabilities to design and integrate complex systems. His research-led teaching at MSc, MBA, PhD and executive levels is informed by in-depth collaborations with some of the UK’s largest and most significant infrastructure projects.
Professor Davies is author of Projects: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford University Press, 2017), which was awarded the prestigious Project Management Institute (PMI) David I. Cleland Literature Award. He is also author of the The Business of Projects: Managing Innovation in Complex Products and Systems, Cambridge University Press (2005), co-authored with Michael Hobday, and The Business of Systems Integration, Oxford University Press (2003, 2005), co-edited with Andrea Prencipe and Michael Hobday. He has published in a range of management journals such as California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Research Policy, Organization Studies, Industrial Marketing Management, Industrial and Corporate Change, International Journal of Production and Operations Management, Project Management Journal and International Journal of Project Management.
Nathalie Drouin
Nathalie Drouin, PhD, MBA, LL.B. is the Executive Director at KHEOPS, an International Research Consortium on the Governance of Large Infrastructure Projects, the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, a full professor at the Department of Management, École des Sciences de la gestion, Université du Québec à Montréal (ESG UQAM), Adjunct Professor at University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia and Associate Researcher at École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP), Canada.
She teaches initiation and strategic management of projects in the Graduate Project Management Programs at ESG UQAM. Her research has been funded by various research councils. The result of her work has been published in major academic journals and presented at several international conferences. She is looking at organizational project management, leadership issues and megaprojects. She is a former member of the PMI Insight Academic Group.
She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Logistics and Transportation Metropolitan Cluster of Montreal (CARGO M) and an Audit Committee Member of Parks Canada Agency Audit Committee, Government of Canada. With Ralf Müller and Shankar Sankaran, she has won the 2019 Walt Lipke Project Governance and Control Excellence Award for the following paper: Müller, R., Sankaran, S., Drouin, N. (2019) A Model of Organizational Project Management and its Validation Project and Program Symposium Vol.2 Edition 1. 17 October p.5-20, as well as the 2019 International Project Management Association IPMA Research Award for the research work: Müller, R., Drouin, N., Sankaran, S. (2018) Balancing Person-Centric and Team-Centric Leadership in Projects. White Paper, Project Management Institute May.
John Grill AO
Leading Australian business figure John Grill AO has been a leading driver in project management research and education being conducted at the University of Sydney for nearly a decade.
John Grill is the current Chairman and was the former Chief Executive of international resources and energy company Worley.
Under his leadership, Worley has become a global enterprise providing specialist design and project services in the civil, structural, environmental, geotechnical and coastal marine fields.
He began his distinguished career with Esso Australia and in 1971 established Wholohan, Grill and Partners as a specialised engineering practice in the oil and gas industry.
His influence on Australian society was acknowledged in the 2014 round of Australia Day Honours with the receipt of an Officer in the Order of Australia award.
John was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Sydney in 2010 in recognition of his contribution to the engineering profession and in 2019, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of New South Wales.
John is also Chairman of the Mindgardens Alliance – a partnership between the Black Dog Institute, Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) and the University of New South Wales.
John Grill’s work on many of the world’s largest mining and infrastructure projects has given him the insight and drive to inspire the next generation of project leaders.
Professor Catherine Killen
Professor Catherine Killen is the Director of the Postgraduate Project Management Program at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
She has a background in mechanical engineering and 10 years of industry experience in projects for product development, innovation, and the introduction of new technologies.
Catherine’s research focuses on project portfolio management and innovation and is published in journals such as the International Journal of Project Management, Project Management Journal, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.
Catherine’s current research interests include strategic multi-project management practices in construction; the role of visualisations in portfolio decision making; emergent strategy and portfolio-level processes; and the establishment of sensemaking capabilities to improve project management practice.
Dr Raymond Levitt
Dr. Ray Levitt is an Operating partner at Blackhorn Ventures, LLC, leading Blackhorn Venture’s investments in startups serving the Construction industry. Ray has launched three software startups in engineering/construction. He has consulted to Fortune 100 companies and government agencies on strategy, organizational design and safety management and has served on the corporate boards of both construction and software companies. He was an early investor in Plangrid, Kahua, eSub and other construction-focused startups.
Ray completed his MS and PhD degrees in Construction Management at Stanford, and then served on the Civil and Environmental Engineering faculties of MIT and Stanford for over 40 years. He retired from Stanford in 2017 to join Blackhorn Ventures. Dr Levitt was appointed a Commissioner of the Public Infrastructure Advisory Commissions by Governor Schwarzenegger. He was elected as a Distinguished member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a Member of the National Academy of Construction.
Dr Samuel C MacAulay
Dr Samuel C. MacAulay is a world-renowned expert on innovation strategy and currently Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland’s Business School. Sam’s research explores how innovation is shaped by business models, how new products and services are created, and how organisation gain and sustain competitive advantage.
This research has focused on industries including mining, gas, solar, wind turbines, civil engineering, architecture and design, and advanced manufacturing, and been published across leading international journals ranging from MIT’s Sloan Management Review and Academy of Management Review through to the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Project Management Journal.
Sam has been successfully bringing his knowledge into the classroom for over 10 years. His experience includes teaching award winning innovation and strategy subjects to thousands of undergraduates, hundreds of executives on the MBA programs at Imperial College London, University of Queensland, and UTS, and delivering many masterclasses for executives at resources, engineering, design, and construction companies such as Jacobs, Thiess, Laing O’Rourke, and RPS Group.
Dr Ashwin Mahalingam
Dr Ashwin Mahalingam joined the faculty in the Building Technology and Construction Management division of the Civil engineering department at IIT-Madras in 2006. Ashwin received his B.Tech in Civil engineering from IIT-Madras and then proceeded to Stanford University for a Masters in Construction Engineering and Management. He then helped start up an internet based company in the USA called All Star Fleet, aimed at providing asset management services for construction companies.
Following this he returned to Stanford University to pursue a PhD in the area of Infrastructure Project Management. Ashwin’s research interests are in the areas of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in Infrastructure planning and management, the management and governance of large engineering projects and the use of technology in infrastructure development.
Ashwin is also a co-founder of Okapi Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd and serves as a Director on the Board. He is the Editor of the Engineering Project Organization Journal (EPOJ) and has served on many national committees.
Professor Alfons van Marrewijk, PhD
Professor Alfons van Marrewijk, is Full Professor Construction Cultures (0,2 fte) at the Department of Management in the Built Environment, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of the Delft University of Technology and Adjunct Professor of Project Management (0,2 fte) at the Norwegian Business School BI Oslo. Furthermore, he is Associate Professor (0,5 fte) at the Department Organization Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
In his academic work he uses anthropological theories and methods for studying inter-organizational collaboration and cultural change in technically oriented organizations and complex mega-projects. Such an approach allows to includes cultural topics of, among others, the everyday life of employees, temporality, socio-technical, rituals, symbols, and organizational spaces.
Van Marrewijk has published in journals such as Organization Studies, British Journal of Management, Long Range Planning, International Journal of Project Management, and Project Management Journal.
Van Marrewijk works in close collaboration with public and industry partners in the construction and infrastructure sector and frequently acts as an expert consultant.
Professor Miia Martinsuo
Prof. Miia Martinsuo, D. Sc. (Tech.), is Professor of Industrial Management at Tampere University, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.
Her field of research and teaching is project and service business.
Prof. Martinsuo has 18 years of academic experience in project and service business, and 9 years of industrial experience particularly in organization and process development in the metal and engineering industry.
Her current research interests include: Project-based organizing; steering and selecting product development project portfolios; front end, autonomy, and control of projects; managing manufacturing and process innovations; industrial service operations and innovations; and organizational transformation towards service business.
Professor Ralf Müller
Dr Ralf Müller is Professor of Project Management at BI Norwegian Business School, Adjunct Professor at University of Technology Sydney, and at Dalian University of Technology in China.
He is Editor-in-Chief of the Project Management Journal® and a Fellow of both the Project Management Institute (PMI®), and the Centre for Excellence in Project Management.
Ralf Müller lectures and researches worldwide in leadership, governance, and organizational project management. His research work appeared in more than 280 academic publications and was acknowledged by PMI, IPMA, Emerald and others with 17 awards, including several life-time achievement awards. A recent study by Stanford University identified him as among of the top 2% of the most influential scientists worldwide.
Before joining academia, he spent 30 years in the industry consulting with large enterprises and governments in more than 50 different countries for better project management and governance. Projects he worked on span from small up to USD 5 billion in value. He also held related line management positions, such as the Worldwide Director of Project Management at NCR Corporation.
Dr Nader Naderpajouh
Dr Naderpajouh is a scholar of risk and resilience in project studies, with the current main research interest on the topic of “organising for resilience.” Currently he is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Research Education and Post Graduate Coordinator at the University of Sydney, while he leads the Organising for Resilience in the Built Environment (ORIBE) research group. He also has an honorary position at RMIT University, where he previously worked as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer (2016-2021). Among his previous appointment he was RMIT Europe Fellow (2019), Adjunct Professor at the University of Tehran (2017), and Visiting Assistant Professor at Purdue University (2014-2016).
He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Management in Engineering by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as well as the Built Environment Project and Asset Management (BEPAM). He is also a member of the Editorial Board of several journals including the International Journal of Project Management (IJPM), while he serves as a referee for over 25 academic journals. His main area of research focuses on collective actions and organising for resilience and extreme contexts across social, technical and ecological systems, and these research streams have been studied through a portfolio of 19 research projects (totalling over A$13,5M) from a range of national and international, public and private organisations. His professional experience includes working for a multi-national joint venture in underground construction with Jäger Bau GmbH of Austria, as well as working as a member of a structural design team in mid/high-rise buildings. He is passionate about the discourse of social justice and equity, in addition to the climate crisis, and these values are foundational in his active research on the topics of resilience, collective action, innovation and infrastructure management.
Dr Julien Pollack
Associate Professor Julien Pollack started working in project management in the Australian public sector delivering organizational change projects, where he completed an Action Research Ph.D. This research won national and international awards. Following this, he managed telecommunications and heavy engineering projects, before taking an academic position in 2011 to teach project management.
He joined the University of Sydney in 2016. His research has focused on two broad themes: trends in project management research; and developing project management practice to meet the needs of projects that cannot be pre-defined in simple and stable terms.
He has successively drawn on systems thinking, complexity theory, and change management to address this latter area of research, particularly focusing on the delivery of organisational change projects.
His research in these areas has been frequently published in the leading project management journals and research conferences.
Dr Mahshid Tootoonchy
Dr Mahshid Tootoonchy is a Lecturer in the School of Project Management at the University of Sydney, Australia. Mahshid is a former lecturer at Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, and Project Management at Sharif University of Technology. For over 10 years, Mahshid worked with leading international organizations in Oil & Gas and manufacturing industries. She received B.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Tehran, MBA from Sharif University of Technology, M.A. in Organizational Behaviour and PhD in Project Management form Queensland University of Technology.
Dr Shahadat Uddin
Dr Shahadat Uddin is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Project Management of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has research interests in Project analytics, Complex networks and Artificial intelligence. Dr Uddin has published in several international and multi-disciplinary journals, including Expert Systems with Applications, Knowledge-Bases Systems, Scientific Reports and Applied Intelligence. Dr Uddin has been awarded many academic awards for his outstanding research excellence, including the Top Researcher Award (Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology Alumni Australia, 2020), Dean’s Research Award (University of Sydney, Australia, 2014), Certificate for Research Excellence (University of Sydney, Australia, 2010) and Campus Director Leadership Award (Central Queensland University, Australia, 2006).
Professor Jennifer Whyte
Jennifer Whyte is Director of the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership and Head of School of Project Management, in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sydney (2021-).
She retains a position at Imperial College London, where she was Director of the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation, and the Royal Academy of Engineering and Laing O’Rourke Professor of Systems Integration in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (2015-2021), and she retains an affiliation. At Stanford University (2015), she was Shimizu Visiting Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. Her first degree is from University of Cambridge and her PhD from Loughborough University. She did postdoctoral research at SPRU, University of Sussex, and Imperial College London.
Her research has led to extensive work with industry and policy. She co-curated the World Economic Forum (WEF) ‘Engineering and Construction’ Transformation Map (2016-2019). She is on the a Senior Advisory Group (2021-) of the UK’s Construction Leadership Council (2019-2021). She sits on the UK’s EPSRC Engineering Strategic Advisory Team; is a Board Member of the ICSF ‘Transforming Construction’ Advisory Board; and previously sat on the MHCLG Building Safely Committee (2018-2019). She has worked with Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority to deliver Singapore’s Integrated Digital Delivery strategy, draw on her research to train more than 100 senior executives.
Professor Willy Zwaenepoel
Professor Willy Zwaenepoel, an established global leader in experimental computer science research, joined the Faculty of Engineering in July 2018.
Professor Zwaenepoel has worked in a variety of aspects of operating and distributed systems and he is best known for his work on the TreadMarks distributed shared memory system, which was licensed to Intel and became the basis for Intel’s OpenMP cluster product. He was a key advisor to Nutanix from 2010 (currently valued at US$5.5 billion) and his research has led to two startups, iMimic and BugBuster, being acquired by Cisco. He continues to advise several start-ups and is as a member of the board of ICTSwitzerland.
Previous events
2021 Symposium – Project Leadership in a Changing World
The John Grill Institute for Project Leadership hosted an international symposium with leading researchers in the field on 10 November 2021.