Ariane Moussault has been active in the field of project management as a project manager, coach, trainer, and consultant since 1992. She has experience in a wide variety of projects both in the public and the private sector and has been a lecturer in project management at the University of Groningen (Netherlands). In 2011, she published the book, ‘Wegwijzer voor Methoden bij Projectmanagement’ (Guide for methods in Project Management). A Dutch guide which compares 10 project management methods of international importance using the IPMA ICB Competence Framework used by the project management community. Ariane undertakes assessments of organisations within the IPMA Excellence programme and is a regular speaker at IPMA conferences. Over the last three years, she has been the director of the project management office at ASML in the Netherlands and leading the ASML program to the next level of Project Management. Currently, she is writing a book on project management for higher education.

Nigel Bagster has over 30 years working in defence both as a uniformed engineering and logistics officer, and as a senior programme director where he has held a number of senior posts for several of the major defence prime contracting firms. Since leaving the Australian Army in 2001 after 15 years’ service, Nigel has been heavily involved in leading the delivery of a number of significant delivery programmes all seeking to provide both midlife and new capability upgrades to a variety different military equipment and platforms.

Currently, Nigel is the electronic warfare (EW) portfolio director working for Thales, UK. More recently he was the programme director for Leonardo MW (formally Finmeccanica) based in Melbourne leading the delivery of a communication system to upgrade to the Royal Australian Navy’s ANZAC Class Frigates. In this role, he also opened an office on behalf of Leonardo MW in Melbourne to establish a permanent business presence in Australia. Other senior posts have included working for BAE Systems, UK as the head of programmes and delivery for their combat vehicles business where Nigel had responsibility for a number projects that were upgrading and modifying the British Army’s armoured fleet of vehicles - many of which at the time were being prepared for combat operations in the ME. This role also had portfolio oversight for the provision of other contracted logistical support services to the British Army such as the provision of spares and repairs to a range of equipment. Nigel is a graduate of the Royal Military College Duntroon, and has an MBA from the University of Queensland. His current home is in Surrey UK where he has lived mostly for the past 12 years, and where he can pursue his interest in cross country mountain biking and road cycling.

Denise Moody, Global Senior Director of Project Management, oversees regulatory affairs and pharmacovigilance work for the PPD® FSP team. Denise joined PPD in August 2013 and is based in the Cambridge, UK office. She has over 25 years of experience working in the diagnostic and pharmaceutical industries with 15 years of those years working on projects. As a qualified clinical biochemist, (MSc, FIBMS) Denise started her business career working with Boerhringer Mannheim and has since worked for Chiron, Bayer, Hexel group, Amdipharm, Watson, and Actavis. During her time in pharmaceuticals, Denise has been heavily involved in the development and supply chain areas. Denise is very experienced in running and leading successful global projects and project teams, with the first-hand experience of managing start-ups, mature programs, and closeouts. Denise has a proven track record in successful project planning and management and building effective teams. Denise feels that transparency and open communication is paramount to delivering results. Having direct line management and matrix management experience, Denise has a reputation for delivering projects on time and on budget.

Robert has a long background within the automotive and aerospace business and has extensive experience from product strategy, product planning, and portfolio management based on a range of assignments in companies such as General Motors and several entities within the Volvo Group, Volvo Powertrain, IT, Aero, and Group Trucks Technology. Robert now works for Teradata as an industry consultant focusing on the application of big data and big analytics mainly in the automotive business, but also in other areas relevant to Teradata.

Part of Robert’s tasks within product strategy, product planning and portfolio management has been to strengthen the analytical capabilities of the organisation in order to support and enable efficient, high quality decision-making based on relevant data from a multitude of sources, both external and internal to the organisation.

With more than 11 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Christoph is working in his current role as a senior project manager in the project management office of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). He is responsible for drug discovery and development programs in the disease areas of autoimmunity, transplantation, inflammation, and ophthalmology working with multi-cultural teams in a global setting. He has extensive experience with biologics and low-molecularweight compounds. Christoph studied biology and, after gaining his Ph.D., completed two postdoctoral pieces of training in immunology at the Max-Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Albert-Ludwigs- University in Freiburg, Germany. Building on this strong background in immunology, Christoph joined the industry in 2005 as a biomarker expert and moved into project management in 2009.

Carolina Rubel is a director in the IQVIA™ project management department with 14 years of extensive experience managing and coordinating multi-centre international clinical projects and project teams. Carolina has strong leadership skills and an excellent proven delivery record across a wide range of large demanding projects. Carolina’s responsibilities have included customer primary key contact, budget and finance management, study document management, electronic data capture, and site feasibility. Adding to that, she has experience in the coordination and management of the following service lines: clinical monitoring, regulatory affairs, study drug management, safety surveillance & reporting, clinical monitoring/site management, data management, biostatistics, medical writing, and third-party vendors. Carolina has been involved in all aspects of a study from start up to close out. She has been involved in global study management across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Phases I/ II/III/IV. Carolina has experience in line management both in clinical operations and project management, mentoring, training, FDA inspection audit, and client audit and programmes oversight. Carolina has significant experience working in the central nervous system therapeutic area including Alzheimer’s disease, depression, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, paediatric CNS indications, pain, Parkinson’s disease, migraines, depressive disorders, sleep disorders, and epilepsy. Carolina also participated in different global initiatives such as Recruitment Strategies, Quintiles Global Enrolment Tool, Clinical Team Leader Forum, and SOP task force. Currently, she leads the Resource Central Nervous System group in Europe. Before joining Quintiles, Carolina gathered significant experience as a basic clinical research in molecular biology and inflammatory processes. She has also worked as a university professor at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Simon began his AstraZeneca career as a laboratory chemist before moving into process chemistry project management. An interest and involvement in the development of enterprise and functional project and portfolio management tools led to subsequent roles in portfolio and capacity management. He has worked within two technical functions (initially the chemistry and pharmacy development function then a combined regulatory affairs/patient safety/quality assurance function). He recently moved into pipeline strategy and management which serves as the home and centre of excellence for all cross-functional project and portfolio management, capacity management, analytics, and reporting.

Until 1999, Joerg was serving as an officer in the German Airforce. Since then he has been working for the Bosch Group in various assignments. He started in Bosch’s automotive customer application group developing, adapting, and releasing active driving safety systems to passenger cars as an engineer and technical project manager. After several years working very closely with automotive manufacturers and providing innovative technical solutions for driving safety, he focused on strategical initiatives and restructuring programs within Bosch to align development operations and business strategy. After that, he moved on to Bosch’s Solar Energy division and later to Bosch Security Systems working on strategic business enhancement projects to provide better customer value on higher technological system levels. Being part of Bosch Security Systems, he was responsible for several product project portfolios and later being responsible for the project management office (PMO).

Today, he is the leader of the operational excellence program at Bosch Video Systems. During his assignments he played an active role in the challenges of not only deriving business strategies, but also successfully putting strategies into place. Originating from innovation and R&D project environment he provides project experience from cross-functional business, organisational and change programs including M&A, cost reduction and value chain initiatives. Joerg’s academic background is an engineering degree in information technology combined with an MBA from Ashridge Business School, UK (today Hult Business School).

Dr. Waggett leads IBM’s Research and Emerging Technology Groups in the UK. He has a team of over 60 technologists that are charged with ensuring that research ideas are quickly developed and delivered through client projects. The team is currently working with IBM’s Watson and Cloud Technologies as well as a wider research agenda. He is also involved in a number of consultancy projects for a range of public and private sector organisations.

Kelvin Kirby is the multi-award-winning CEO of Technology Associates, a Microsoft Gold Partner specializing in project and portfolio management. For many years Kelvin has led the PPM team at Technology Associates in the deployment of complex project and portfolio management solutions for a range of companies including some of the largest companies in EMEA and USA. Kelvin has held a number of senior leadership positions in many organisations including Rover Cars, Jaguar, Land Rover, Amazon, and at the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) where he served as International board member for 8 years and after being appointed as Worldwide Treasurer in January 2010, continued to serve in that role until December 2015 with a brief interlude when he served as Worldwide President in 2012. In addition to several other board-level appointments at European and International level, Kelvin has worked with major blue-chip companies for more than 30 years, including those in the pharmaceutical, biotech, healthcare, financial services, insurance, IT, engineering, manufacturing, retail, fashion and automotive sectors, although this is by no means an exclusive list. Kelvin was named as the world’s first ever Microsoft Most Valued Professional (MVP) for Microsoft Project in 1995 and retained his role as MVP for over 11 years. Today, Kelvin is the UK regional lead for the Microsoft MVP Reconnect community and is a member of the MVP Reconnect Advisory Board based in Seattle. Kelvin also served on the elite and exclusive Microsoft Partner Executive Engagement Board for 6 years. In 1993, Kelvin co-founded and became a co-director of The Microsoft Project User Group and helped to grow a vibrant and loyal group of members before the group was taken over by a US operation in 2001. Today Kelvin is an active member of, and since 2014 has been EMEA regional director for the Microsoft PPM User Group and a group administrator on the Microsoft Project Users LinkedIn Group. Kelvin is a leading authority and expert in Microsoft Project and Project Server/Online and has been consulting and training in Project Management since 1985. He was a co-author of the QUE books “Using Microsoft Project 2002 Special Edition” and “Using Microsoft Project 2003 Special Edition” and has been a regular contributor to many other magazines, books, and blogs. Today, Kelvin uses his experience as a driver to help organisations catalyse their digital transformation and processes and to help companies maximise margins, reduce costs, improve delivery times, and become more efficient in managing projects and resources. Kelvin describes himself as a project specialist, executive business coach, serial entrepreneur, and technology evangelist.

Frank Endrikat’s professional life has been focused on 3 main areas – projects, professional services and education, usually within global organizations and related to SAP Solution. Managing global SAP template design and rollout across Europe, Americas and Asia as well as global SAP operations. Frank is seasoned senior transformation executive with 28 years of SAP, 5 years of SAP Practice & Professional Service Management, an excess of 15 years successful, global SAP Portfolio, Programme, Services and Delivery Management on Board and CxO Level, with 10 years’ experience in Programme Management, Solution Management and Architecture and 15 Years’ experience in Project Management, Business Processes and Training, in SAP Projects since 1989 and delivering IT Projects since 1986. His key engagements were Projects implementing SAP at Lufthansa, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, managing global programmes with a budget in excess of 200 Mio USD and up to 150 program members. Frank is the author of the book “Making ERP Transformations successful”, which gives an overview of the typical elements of a global IT, ERP or SAP Transformation program or project.

Mark Gray is a certified professional project manager with over 25 years of experience in managing complex projects in semiconductors, defence, and energy sectors around the world. With a background in electronics, a master’s in business and an ongoing Ph.D. research project, he brings a unique blend of personal and collected experiences to the table and leverages this in sharing his passion for excellence in project management. Mark is a seasoned speaker at PMI and other events and is actively involved in developing project management in organisations.

Justin Byrd leads a large and diverse team of project delivery and PMO professionals responsible for delivering services to both internal and external clients. Justin centralised project and PMO resources from disparate teams transforming the way Fujitsu delivers project and PMO services to its clients and also the way in which those services are engaged by standardising PMO solutions and offering an innovative choice of operating model, offering reduced price shared service global delivery. By establishing a P3O hub and spoke delivery model and creating a PMO centre of excellence, Justin has standardised best practices, improved governance and increased revenue growth. Justin is now further maturing his PMO service offering by empowering his team to adapt how they deliver in a more agile environment.

Andrea has more than 15 years’ experience in developing new products and technologies in the aerospace sector, having worked both in Europe and USA for some leading multinational companies. He is now working for GE Avio Aero as program director and product growth leader, with the objective of introducing innovation in the company’s aftermarket business. He is also the non-executive director of QBot, a robotics company based in London, as well as chair of the Advisory Board for the same company. Previously, he has been AgustaWestland focal point at Bell Helicopters (Texas) for aerodynamics, noise and anti-Icing systems of the BA609 Civil Tiltrotor, a program manager for the USA Presidential Helicopter, the head of future programmes engineering for Rolls-Royce Controls Supply Chain Unit, demand planning executive and service business executive at Rolls-Royce Civil Large Engines with program management and planning responsibilities for the end-to-end aftermarket financial and operational planning cycle. He has an MBA from London Business School. He is a fellow and chartered engineer of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), fellow and registered project professional of the Association for Project Management (APM), fellow and chartered manager of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). He has been the chair of the CMI West Midlands Branch. He is Black Belt accredited at Rolls-Royce and Chartered Quality Professional of the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI).

As Meisterplan CEO, Christoph strives to improve people’s lives as they work on projects. This includes making sure organisations work on topics that make sense, that they have an overall plan that can actually be achieved by their employees, and their teams can use the work management tools they love. Before joining Meisterplan, Dr. Christoph Hirnle ran cloud insurance specialist software, 3C. Prior to that, he helped organizations grow and change as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. He also added to the scientific discussion on network economics as a researcher at the University of Munich.

Guenter Sandmann joined Workfront on January 1st, 2018 to build up the Central European market and has over 20 years of experience in sales and management roles in the software industry. He worked for start-ups and built them up in the Central and Eastern Europe region via direct and channel sales and for companies such like CallidusCloud (acquired by SAP), Eloqua (acquired by ORACLE), and Intralinks where he ran the Enterprise Sales Team in Central Europe. He also worked with the SI Steria- as sales director for finance and heading up sales for the ECM and CRM practice. During his career, Guenter was always selling cutting-edge technology and solutions and for several years focused on the SaaS business and can be seen as a SaaS veteran in the region. Companies like Nestle, Deutsche Post, Siemens, Panasonic, VW, WestLB, Bundesdruckerei, Deloitte, Deutsche Rente, DuPont, and DOW Chemical bought solutions from Guenter and his teams. Guenter holds a degree in business economics from VWA Freiburg with controlling extensions on top of it. Guenter is married and has two daughters – when he’s not working or spending time with the family, you will find him on his mountain bike attending challenging races.