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In this episode, we find out the secrets of being a great project manager. It’s January, the time of year where many of us have New Year's resolutions, or maybe just a vague idea of how we want to change things up. So, listen on for some excellent advice from APM’s Chartered Project Professional of the Year, Tamsin Alli-Balogun, who’s also Associate Director of Transport at AtkinsRéalis; Paul Chapman OBE of the University of Oxford Saïd Business School, where he is Academy Director of the UK Government’s Major Projects Leadership Academy; Andy Alder, Managing Director for Major Infrastructure Delivery at Anglian Water; and Anne Marie Purcell of Purcell Advisory. If you want even more top tips, listen to our first instalment of this podcast, published in January 2025.  Contact us: [email protected]

Emma welcomes back to the podcast Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, author and Vice President of APM, to talk about his new book, Powered by Projects, which is published by Harvard Business Review Press in January 2026. In it, he argues that CEOs must put projects, not operations, at the centre of how their companies create value. But where does that leave the project managers in that organisation? And how can every project professional future-proof themselves?  Contact us: [email protected] 

Emma meets Nathan Hellebrand ChPP, Global Delivery Director at Babcock International Group, and Mike Hudson ChPP, Interim Strategy Management Director at the National Trust, to discuss simplicity. It’s a topic that crops up often when we interview senior project professionals about how they make the delivery of their projects a success. Join us as we get to the bottom of this deceptively complex subject. Contact us: [email protected]  

Professor Adam Boddison OBE welcomes Gareth Taylor to the podcast. Gareth was recently appointed a nuclear sector director at Turner & Townsend, having previously spent over six years at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. He has over 25 years of experience in the nuclear industry and has held a range of senior leadership roles. At the NDA, he led transformative programmes to improve asset management, programme delivery and operational efficiency across the UK's nuclear estate. His work included implementing a programme management and asset management strategy that identified over £10bn worth of savings and advanced net zero goals. Contact us: [email protected] 

Emma is joined by Douglas Hubbard and Andreas Leed to discuss their book How to Measure Anything in Project Management, also co-authored with Alexander Budzier. Be prepared for mind-expanding conversation about project management and how any aspect of it can be measured, including those things you thought might be immeasurable – and why we should all be engaged in the most important project of all: the ‘meta-project’ of understanding how to manage projects better.  Contact us: [email protected]

We tackle the perennial problem of self-confidence and why many of us need an occasional, or more general, boost to our levels of it. Emma speaks to Dame Inga Beale, ex-CEO of Lloyd’s of London, and a woman who has very much learned how to get ahead in a male-dominated sector. She also hears the advice of leadership coach Muriel Wilkins of Paravis Partners in the US, who has a new book called Leadership Unblocked, published by Harvard Business Review Press. She's also the host of Harvard Business Review's Coaching Real Leaders podcast. Emma also speaks to Anita Phagura, who is highly experienced in the world of project management and is now a leadership development and culture coach, particularly around inclusion.  Contact us: [email protected] 

Emma is joined by Nigel Cann (Sizewell C), Stuart McLaren (WSP) and Carol Tansley (X-energy). They discuss the future of nuclear energy projects in the UK, including new technologies and the government’s wider strategy for clean energy. The guests share why collaboration between various nuclear utilities will be critical in this new world, the necessity for modularisation and standardisation, and the need for a “demand signal” for investment. Contact us: [email protected] Read Nigel’s blog on the APM website here. You can also read more from Nigel in the autumn 2025 edition of Project journal, exclusively for APM members 

Emma meets Dr Paul Chapman, Senior Fellow at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, and Gordon MacKay, Project Management Capability Lead at Sellafield, who also provided specialist knowledge for a new APM Learning module on leadership of self, which is coming out soon. Gordon and Paul delve deep into their experience and research to pass on their advice on what it takes to be a great project leader in 2025.  Gordon’s APM book Evolving Project Leadership is available here. Contact us: [email protected] 

Emma meets Amy Morley ChPP, APM’s new Chair and a Programme Management Senior Director at AECOM, an industry leader in programme management services for large, complex infrastructure programmes. Amy discusses everything from what the future might hold for APM and the project profession to her career lessons.  Contact us: [email protected]

Managing stress, maintaining work-life balance and avoiding burnout is a modern preoccupation. But let's not forget that the right level of stress can be enjoyable and motivating for many of you working in project management. To unpick these issues, Emma is joined by Dr Clara Cheung (University of Manchester), Veronica Sikombe (Mott MacDonald) and Rochelle Sampson-Clarke (NHS South, Central and West CSU). Veronica and Rochelle are both members of APM’s Women in Project Management Interest Network, and are active in its wellbeing subgroups. Clara is co-author of the APM report The Wellbeing of Project Professionals (2019). Find the Workplace Wellbeing Profile on the APM website here. Contact us: [email protected]

Emma meets Jonathan Simcock, a highly experienced and respected project leader who has held executive roles in the oil and gas, energy, utilities and telecommunication sectors. In 2007, he took over what became the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (and is now NISTA). Until last year, he was chair of the Submarine Delivery Agency in the MOD. His book, The Delivery Gap: Why government projects really fail and what can be done about it will be published on 22 September 2025.  Contact us: [email protected]

APM CEO Professor Adam Boddison is joined by Steve Langbridge, Director of Programmes at SEA, a company based in South-west England which specialises in developing and delivering defence solutions to a global customer base. Its business areas include naval ship and fleet protection, and undersea surveillance systems. Steve was appointed to his Director role in July, having previously been Head of Project Management Office. Steve shares what it’s like to deliver projects and programmes in the defence sector – including the challenges of working in such a fast-evolving and complex space.  Contact us: [email protected] Find out more about SEA at sea.co.uk 

Emma goes behind the scenes at London's Natural History Museum, which is an APM Corporate Partner. The museum will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2031 and has therefore kicked off a programme that includes the creation of six new permanent galleries within the iconic museum building in South Kensington. The first gallery has already opened, and that's where Emma headed. It's called ‘Fixing Our Broken Planet’ and focuses on the planetary emergency and the solutions that scientists, including those at the Natural History Museum, are working on. Listen to hear Emma interview the project professionals who delivered the new gallery. Contact us: [email protected] 

Emma visits Elstree Studios, which has been home to TV soap EastEnders since 1985. She goes behind the scenes of a project to create new production and post-production suites from a derelict building and to give actors new dressing rooms and make-up rooms. Get a flavour of what it's like on a construction project in a creative environment with cast and crew filming all around as the project takes shape. Contact us: [email protected]

Emma meets Anne Marie Purcell, C-Suite Advisor in Transformational Change in Delivery and Transport; Nermeen Latif, Technical Director of Digital Solutions at WSP; and Glen Kelly, Programme Manager at CoStar Live Lab. They discuss finding purpose and meaning in your work. For project professionals, a sense of purpose – that you're doing something not just for the bottom line, but also for the bigger impact that you can have – is where they get their motivation.  Listen on for an exploration of what gets project professionals to leap out of bed in the morning. Is it feeling part of a project that leaves the world a better place? Is it about a sense of achievement or fulfilment? Is it working with people? Or is it the challenge of getting stuck into really knotty problems and finding a way around them? Contact: [email protected]