February 2023 | The projects mandate for sustainable development by Jo Jolly, Paul Campion, Fola Alabi and Esther Gordon-Smith

Jo Jolly will be outlining her journey into her current role, and the mandate she has been given around transforming project delivery and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This webinar is part of a series. There will be 6 talks covering the 6 main social and planetary systems outlined in the UN Making Peace with Nature report.

Each talk will have 2 main speakers covering interdependencies within the UN SDGs, with each session being structured around 1 of the 6 ‘theme systems’.  The 2 main speakers will;

• highlight the interdependencies and dilemmas around competing goals within the themes
• give a high level description of what sorts of systems are working within the theme system e.g. two competing balancing loops, or,  a renewable stock constrained by a non renewable stock etc.

Jo is a Deputy Director at the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, leading their Project Futures team. Jo has worked for over 20 years in project delivery, most recently in the successful delivery of the Environment Agency’s £2.6bn 6-year flood risk management programme. She believes we need urgently to transform our approach to project delivery in order to achieve the best outcomes for the economy, the environment and society as a whole. Jo is pioneering the use of data analytics in this transformation, including as a founding member of the Project Data Analytics Task Force and a Director of the not-for-profit Construction Data Trust.

Paul Campion has been the CEO of TRL since July 2019. Previously Paul was the CEO of the Transport Systems Catapult, a not-for-profit organisation created by the government as part of the catapult network to grow the UK economy by supporting the growth of innovation in transport systems. Paul’s earlier career was spent in a wide variety of roles at IBM helping companies and industries to transform through the application of new technology. He has done professional, management and executive jobs at UK, European and Worldwide level in the UK, USA, France and Switzerland.

Fola Alabi is the futurist and value catalyst reshaping project management as a lifestyle. She is fondly called THE Strategic Project Leader™. She is the CEO and Chief Innovation Officer of Strategic Project Leader Inc.  Also, she founded the No Gap Foundation, a for-purpose, non-profit organization dedicated to bridging the opportunity and relational gap for women, visible minorities and working parents.

Fola’s passion is to transform 1 million lives by 2030, providing invaluable project management strategies that transform careers, businesses and lives. She has made her career about simplifying complexities and maximizing leverage to achieve tangible business results and outcomes. For over two decades, Fola has managed project managers, business analysts and technical SMEs on multiple million-dollar portfolios. She has created project management centers of excellence otherwise called PMOs.

Fola is the host of the SPL Podcast where she discusses with Project Management authorities to enrich the body of knowledge. Fola helps by providing tools and strategies for not only project professionals but also, ordinary people to create extraordinary careers, businesses and lives. All these she achieves by leveraging project management with a strategic focus.

Fola is dedicated to lifelong learning and currently holds an MBA, PMP, PMI -ACP,  Scrum Master, and PRosci Change Practitioner.

Esther Gordon-Smith is a Chartered civil engineer turned benefits manager. Generalist rather than specialist. Inspired by Kate Raworth: Doughnut Economics, and passionate about making this decade count. Novice story teller, and most of my history education has been from costume drama, but in this session she is hoping to bring systems thinking to look at some of the key assumptions that are the foundation of the modern world.