Project and Programme Management team

Bill Cleary

Senior Principal Lecturer/Consultant

• E-mail: bill.cleary@qa.com

Bill joined QA in 2003 as a Senior Project Management. He is a professional consultant with 36 years experience of delivering successful projects and building highly productive teams. He has been involved in the training industry for over 10 years. A practical problem-solver and effective trouble-shooter he has delivered a number of business critical projects for diverse clients in Information Technology, Training, Financial Services, The Civil Service and a Local Authority. He was Managing Director of a small training and consultancy. He has gained a number of academic and industry-recognised awards, including, B.Sc. in Chemistry & Biology Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Microbiology Project Management Institute – Member, Project Management Professional Association for Project Management – Member, APM Professional, APM Practitioner Qualification Assessor Association for Project Management Group – PRINCE2 Registered Practitioner & Accredited trainer, PRINCE2 Professional award evaluator (He was involved in the creation and piloting of the PRINCE2 Professional award scheme now offered by APMG and QA) Management of Risk Practitioner. Due to his years of experience he brings to the classroom a wealth of experience gained in a variety of work environments.

Carl Karshagen

Managing Consultant

• E-mail: carl.karshagen@qa.com

Carl is an experienced project management practitioner with delivery expertise at individual and corporate level. He adopts a pragmatic and highly enthusiastic approach to whatever assignment he is involved, helping people and organisations develop best practice project delivery capability. Carl started his career in the Nuclear Industry in South Africa and has developed methodologies, processes and procedures in support of best practice project management in a wide range of industry areas.

Eileen Roden

Learning Programme Director

• E-mail: eileen.roden@qa.com
• Personal blog

Eileen is an experienced Project and Programme Management Consultant and Trainer who works with key clients of QA to improve project delivery capability.  She works with a direct, pragmatic approach, coupled with a passion and infectious enthusiasm for the practical application of project and programme management.  Eileen’s expertise in all things PMO is recognised within the industry – she is the Global ATO lead for P3O and the PMO Authority in the APM PMOSIG.

Gerry McCafferty

Managing Consultant

• E-mail: gerry.mccafferty@qa.com

Gerry carries a strong academic background (including PRINCE2, PMI, APM and MBA qualifications) and many years of practical project management experience into the ‘classroom’ in order to help explain complex concepts and bring theory to life. This experience was gained within senior positions across multiple organisations (including Cadence Design Systems and Motorola where Gerry assumed the position of New Products Introduction Manager for Motorola’s global smartcard division). Gerry has a keen interest in the field of accelerated learning where the focus and ownership of any learning intervention is placed firmly on the shoulders of the individual delegate. His passion and enthusiasm for the field of project management quickly spreads amongst his delegates, aided by a generous helping of appropriate humour!

Helen Leech

Senior Principal Lecturer

• E-mail: helen.leech@qa.com

Helen has been involved in training and education for over 12 years, with previous project and programme management experience in the financial sector delivering IT, training, business process and financial services projects. She is a Prince2 registered Practitioner and accredited trainer and a certified APMI & APMP lecturer. She has previously been a consultant in the development of both public and private sector bespoke project management methodologies and training courses.

Ian Clarkson

Head of Project and Programme Management Product Development

• E-mail: ian.clarkson@qa.com
• Personal blog

Dr Ian Clarkson is Head of Project and Programme Management Product Development at QA, providing business direction and ownership of QA’s portfolio, programme, project and risk management curriculum. Ian is an experienced lecturer, author, speaker and consultant, having delivered programmes and projects in all industry sectors. This extensive hands-on experience coupled with a background in education has made Ian well-known and highly respected in his field. Ian currently works with a team of highly experienced lecturers and consultants helping organisations excel in all aspects of portfolio, programme, project and risk management.

Jon Owen

Senior Principal Lecturer

• E-mail: jon.owen@qa.com

Jon joined QA in April 2008 as a Principal Lecturer. His background is in Project, Quality, Performance and Change Management. Jon has held a number of Project Manager roles in telecommunications and fraud industries and as a Quality Manager for an MOD supplier, as well experience in the public sector within Performance Management. Jon is also an experienced TickIT Lead Auditor. His specialist areas focus on the creation and delivery of bespoke and off-the-shelf training courses in the following areas: APM Introductory Certificate and APMP, APM Group PRINCE2 Board overview, Foundation & Practitioner, Bespoke project management for both the public & private sector and APM Group Management of Risk Foundation & Practitioner.

Keith Tristram

Senior Manager: Training Delivery

• E-mail: keith.tristram@qa.com

Backed by over 20 years experience in the learning and development arena Keith brings his considerable management experience to our Midlands Region. Keith Looks after staff working out of our main offices in Birmingham, Hinckley & Milton Keynes. In addition to his work as a senior manager within QA Keith also delivers courses in our Programme and Project Management portfolio. Keith is an experienced manager of people, projects and programmes (global in scale) holding qualifications to deliver courses in Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), Prince2, Management of Risk (M_o_R) as well as project management courses from the ISEB and Association of Project Management. In addition to delivering these courses Keith has also worked with a range of clients developing bespoke training materials, an example of which was the work to develop a programme of training for Manchester City Council.

Margaret Kennedy

Principal Lecturer

• E-mail: margaret.kennedy@qa.com

Margaret joined QA in 2006 and has been involved in training and education in various subjects for 12 years. As a member of QA’s Professional Best Practice team she has helped hundreds of delegates to achieve Prince2 Practitioner status and also delivers APM project management courses as a full member of the APM (MAPM). Margaret has an honours degree in Biological Sciences, a Level 4 SVQ in Learning and Development, and also holds the Managing Successful Programmes Practitioner, PPSO and ISEB Requirements Engineering and Organisational Context qualifications. She is a firm believer in “keeping things simple” and thus uses simple, everyday examples to demonstrate principles in her courses.

Mark Reeson FAPM

Senior Principal Consultant

• E-mail: mark.reeson@qa.com
• Personal blog

Mark Reeson is our GPM specialist, a Fellow of the Association of Project Management, and has been involved in many project and programme consultative roles. He has been appointed a Green Project Management Global Advisor. He has over 25 years experience in the Project Management industry, having started his career in the Royal Air Force before working and delivering projects in both the nuclear and international sporting field. “Mark’s ability to assess a situation, react, and deliver based on his keen sense of responsibility as a global citizen is what makes him one of, if not the most sought after project management specialists in all of Europe.” Joel Carboni (Executive Director at GPM Ltd )

Michael Wood

Senior Principal Lecturer Consultant

• E-mail: michael.wood@qa.com

Michael has been teaching at QA for six years and is the lead trainer for MSP, managing successful programmes. Before this he worked with the public sector to implement initiatives such as the egovernment agenda. Michael has also project and programme managed many large scale implementations in the construction industry and in web technologies and ecommerce, as well as enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for some well know utility and communications organisations. Michael believes in teaching in a down to earth style, using everyday real examples and if you can Inject a bit of humour this is not bad thing also!

Peter Ballard

Senior Principal Lecturer/Consultant

• E-mail: peter.ballard@qa.com
• Personal blog

Peter Ballard is our Portfolio Management specialist who embarked on his Project Management career over 25 years ago while in the Royal Air Force. From those early beginnings as part of a small team juggling four Nimrod major servicing projects simultaneously and nearly 85 teams he has thrived on the challenge of changing organisations for the better. None more so than, on leaving the RAF in the early nineties, to implementing one of the first Medical Pathology IT systems within the NHS. “Green Field sites may appear easy but they often represent quite radical change.” Peter brings his wide-ranging P3M (Portfolio, Programme, and Project Management) experience gained from public, private, and third sectors to the classroom delivering PPM and Business Systems Development courses.

Ray Virr

Training Delivery Manager

• E-mail: ray.virr@qa.com

Ray is a project management specialist with over 25 years of experience and is a Member of the British Computer Society. He holds the PMP, APMP, PRINCE2 Practitioner, Agile Practitioner and ISEB PPSO Foundation qualifications. Ray has worked with clients in the Finance, Travel and Consumables sectors to develop project management methods and training programmes to support these.

Richard Cordy

Senior Principle Lecturer Consultant

• E-mail: richard.cordy@qa.com

Richard has been employed by QA, formerly Cap Gemini training, since 1986, and has over 30 years experience in the IT industry, having started his working life in manufacturing, with Rolls-Royce (aero-engines). In that time, he project managed many manufacturing projects, aligned to engineering R&D programmes, IT projects to support the business, and several business change initiatives in the context of a major overhead reduction programme. While working for Cap Gemini, he specified, developed and ran courses on Quality Assurance and Agile Project Management. His most recent experience includes running classroom based courses on many project and programme management topics, including: Generic and Client Specific Project Management courses, some employing work-based assignments; PRINCE2®; Managing Successful Programmes (MSP®); and Management of Risk (M_o_R®). He adopts a pragmatic, enthusiastic and commonsense approach to lecturing. Richard was the APMG recognised PRINCE2 Lead Trainer for QA until early 2007, and then Lead Trainer for MSP until late 2010.

Ron Dusznyj

Principal Lecturer

• E-mail: ron.dusznyj@qa.com

Ron has recently joined QA as a trainer delivering APMG accredited Project and Programme management courses having performed this role previously for several years in other organisations. Prior to becoming a trainer, Ron worked as a Project Manager on a variety of projects for organisations both in the private and public sector including the NHS, Halifax, BAA, Sage, and others. As a project manager Ron specialised in the building of e-Learning and assessment solutions for his clients giving him a truly wide spectrum of experience in learning delivery methods.

Ruth Thompson

Principal Lecturer

• E-mail: ruth.thompson@qa.com

Ruth Thompson is an accredited best practice lecturer for APMG PRINCE2, MSP, Change Management and ISEB Business Analysis courses. She also acts as QAs’ project lead for the APMG Change Management courses. Ruth has a passion for sharing best practice and since joining QA has supported hundreds of delegates to achieve success in their professional exams. Prior to joining QA Ruth worked for a wide range of private and public sector organisations on projects and programmes both within the UK and internationally. Responsibilities have included reviewing business processes, making recommendations for change and project managing implementations. With a back-ground in HR (she is a member of the CIPD), Ruth has always been particularly interested in managing the people issues associated with change.

Tom O’Shea

Managing Consultant

Building on a successful career in project delivery Tom has been a professional training and development consultant for over a decade. As well as being an experienced instructor in both classroom and online delivery, Tom also provides consultancy services including the assessment of project capability. The range of projects he has successfully managed spans culture change, marketing strategy, people development, business process improvement and web-based services, in a variety of business environments and often with high degrees of stakeholder complexity. His practical experience is backed up with project qualifications, including a Post-graduate Certificate in Managing Major Projects, and he is also an APM PQ Assessor.