Advanced Practitioner Series (Part III): Shining a light on intelligent decision-making and good governance

Business Acumen

Synopsis:

You are invited to the third event in an exciting series of high-engagement workshops catering to advanced project management practitioners!

The stakes are getting higher and higher. Successful transformation program delivery is the bridge between the bold strategic ambitions of the modern-day Executive and organizational success. For this reason, PwC Canada and Toronto’s PMI Chapter have partnered to develop an engaging day-long workshop for advanced program and project management practitioners, composed of presentations, discussions and case studies.

In this final workshop of this series, we will continue to explore the complex nature of transformation programs and deeper challenges that face advanced practitioners, focused on intelligent decision-making. The presenters will share lessons learned from working with Senior Executives and program sponsors and various types of programs, including infrastructure and capital projects. We expect to explore the deeper challenges of governance and assurance and novel approaches that advanced practitioners are employing, such as information design and visualization for insights-based decision-making.

This workshop promises to be a great opportunity to learn and network with other advanced practitioners that are focused on improving the delivery and impact of their transformation programs. You are invited to exchange transformation experiences with leading academics, consultants and other professionals across various industries.

Biography:

Dr Andrew Schuster - Moderator
Andrew is a Director in PwC’s Risk Assurance practice. His academic and professional career has focused on creating high impact organizational change using good management and project-based practices. He has over 30 years of experience delivering major projects, with over 15 of these spent working in or with the government and health sectors. He has designed, implemented and assured the delivery of major transformation programmes – resulting in step-change improvements to enable people, process and information technology systems or turn-around of failing programmes. His research focuses on projectification and development of project-based capabilities.

Robert Slepin

Robert serves as an independent advisor to the Boards and management of Alberta Health Services and Trillium Health Partners as well as to the program management team of the Central East Cluster in Ontario for their Health Information System (H.I.S.) transformation initiatives. Certified as a project manager and healthcare CIO with 30 years’ experience in health IT, he has previously directed H.I.S. programs at leading institutions in North America and the Middle East, most recently the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto during 2017-2018 and Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in 2014-2016.

Dr. Diana Nada

Dr. Diana Nada is a Senior Manager in Colliers Project Leaders, Infrastructure Advisory Services. She has over 15 years of project and program management experience in capital projects with international asset owner companies and project management consultancies. She specializes in governance and oversight of capital projects, advising on best practices of project assurance and project delivery, PMOs and project auditing. She holds a Ph.D. in Project Management (Civil Engineering) from the University of Calgary. She has published articles and is the author of the book "Project Approval Decisions: Exploring Success Factors". Dr. Diana has been a PMI member since 2006 and volunteers with the PMI Toronto PMO branch.

Chris Moorehead
Chris is a licensed professional engineer and graphic designer specializing in the visualization of complex information streams. He currently leads the Information Design competency at PwC Canada, where his team uses information design, data visualization, and structured typography best practices to interpret data, develop focused solutions, and communicate key messages on behalf of corporate, institutional, and government clients. Outside of PwC, Chris is a member of the Faculty of Design at OCAD University, where he teaches Data Analytics & Visualization, as well as Wayfinding & Information Systems.

Nilan Walgama
Nilan is a Senior Director with PwC’s Capital Projects & Infrastructure practice. Nilan has over 20 years of industry experience including international megaprojects with capital costs exceeding $7.5B. Nilan has been involved in large scale mining capital projects from pre-feasibility through construction completion and in some cases continued to be a part of the owners’ team to manage the commissioning and ramp-up of facilities. He brings deep mining operational experience and expertise in project governance, organizational capabilities assessments, risk assessments, supply chain management, project controls (project costs, scheduling and progress management including the Quality Assurance and Quality Control programs), Environmental Health & Safety, IT and operational readiness. He has led initiatives focusing on operational excellence and business improvement with a specialization in maintenance management, supply chain and contract optimization. Nilan has also managed large scale construction disputes litigated under the International Chamber of Commerce rules of arbitrations and is testifying witness in these proceedings.

Arun Gupta
Arun is a Partner in PwC’s Risk Assurance practice and leads the Transformation Assurance practice in Canada. He has more than 24 years of experience implementing and advising on large transformation initiatives, implementation of IT systems and risk management practices. Arun brings a combination of risk management and consulting experience to large complex transformational projects.