Before the panel started, the moderator was warned: "Good luck controlling this bunch." Four AACE presidents. 150+ combined years. They lived up to it. Recorded live at the 2026 AACE Houston Gulf Coast Symposium, host Orion Matthews sits down with four current and former AACE International Presidents for an unfiltered conversation on leadership, AI, remote work, and the future of project controls - drawing on decades of experience across megaproject delivery, cost engineering, claims, and global capital programs.

The megaproject industry hits cost, schedule, and production targets just 1% of the time. Martin Darley dropped this number mid-conversation and the panel barely flinched - because they've all seen it. The question isn't whether there's a problem. It's why, after 150+ combined years of experience, the same mistakes keep repeating. The panel's answer points to a gap that has nothing to do with technical skill.

The gap between a strong technical contributor and a trusted advisor isn't technical - it's soft skills. Martin put it directly: "The differentiator between doing the work and advising a GM at Chevron is soft skills. Cost engineers aren't wired that way." Chris Caddell echoed it with a paper he wrote on the "so what?" problem: too many project controls reports lay out numbers without making a recommendation. Learning to influence, communicate, and own a call is the career unlock most technical professionals never fully make.

Remote work works better for experienced practitioners than for people just starting out. The panel wasn't anti-remote, but the sharpest line came from Martin, quoting IPA's Ed Mirro: "If you're in your bedroom on a laptop, how do you manage your career?" Michael Bennick added a specific concern: new professionals starting out fully remote miss the informal learning, mentorship, and calibration that only comes from proximity to experienced practitioners. The consensus was clear - site presence builds instincts that can't be replicated through a screen.

AI won't replace project controls professionals - but it will change what the job looks like. As sitting AACE president overseeing 6,000+ members, Michael Bennick framed it as an opportunity, not a threat - and argued the association has an obligation to help members get out front on it. Martin's enthusiasm was the strongest in the room: "I've been waiting all my career for an enabler like this." Mike Nosbisch held the line on what won't change: someone still has to interpret the output, make the recommendation, and own the decision. The judgment-makers aren't going anywhere.

00:00 – Intro & Welcome to the LIVE AACE Panel

01:30 – How the Panelists Found Their Way into Project Controls

05:00 – Early Career Lessons & Megaproject Experiences

08:30 – Technical Skills vs Leadership Skills

12:00 – Why Communication Is Critical in Project Controls

16:00 – AI in Project Controls: Opportunity vs Hype

22:00 – How AI Could Change Reporting & Decision-Making

26:30 – Remote Work vs In-Person Collaboration

31:30 – International Projects & Cultural Differences

35:00 – Why Megaprojects Keep Repeating the Same Mistakes

38:30 – Advice for Young Professionals Entering the Industry

41:30 – Final Leadership Lessons & Closing Thoughts

• Michael Bennick — Current President of AACE International, Managing Director at J.S. Held
• Chris Caddell — Former AACE President, Director at Spire Consulting Group
• Martin Darley — Former AACE President, Former Senior Advisor at Chevron
• Michael Nosbisch — Former AACE President, Visiting Professor at Texas A&M University

The project controls industry has a looming problem—and it's not technical.

In this episode, Orion sits down with Christina Robinson — founder of Henry Porter LLC and project controls advisor with 14 years across energy, utilities, and infrastructure — to diagnose a crisis that most industry leaders are misreading. The problem isn't a skills shortage: it's a culture and systems problem that's causing younger professionals to actively choose other paths. Christina makes the case that if organizations don't redesign how they work, how they lead, and how they treat people, no amount of recruiting will fix the pipeline.

Christina Robinson is a project controls advisor and founder of Henry Porter LLC, a consultancy helping organizations build stronger project controls functions across energy, utilities, and infrastructure. With 14 years of industry experience, Christina is a vocal advocate for modernizing workplace culture and building more inclusive, human-centered project environments — and she brings both the professional track record and the personal candor to make this conversation one of the most honest in the series. https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-robinson-128960383/

Key Takeaways:

• The talent pipeline problem is structural, not generational. Christina pushes back on the idea that younger professionals simply don't want to work hard. The real issue is that project controls is asking people to accept rigid systems, limited autonomy, and slow career progression at the exact moment that entrepreneurship, digital platforms, and the creator economy are offering faster rewards and greater flexibility. It's not a values gap — it's a rational calculation.
• Outdated workflows are your biggest retention risk. When new hires encounter legacy systems and manual processes that haven't evolved in decades, it doesn't just frustrate them — it signals something about the organization. That signal says: we don't change. And that's what triggers early exits before the organization even realizes it has a retention problem.
• Culture and inclusion aren't soft issues — they're project delivery issues. Christina draws directly on personal experience to connect how bias and exclusion affect retention, particularly for underrepresented groups. Teams where people don't feel valued or supported underperform on projects. The link between psychological safety and project outcomes is direct, not theoretical.
• You don't have to overhaul everything to start competing for talent. Christina's practical advice: identify one or two visible friction points — a rigid attendance policy, a broken workflow, a missing flexibility — and change them deliberately. Early, visible wins build organizational trust and send a signal to both candidates and current employees that the culture is actually moving.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Intro & Episode Setup 01:00 – Christina’s Career Journey into Project Controls 04:45 – Why Early Site Experience Matters 06:15 – Is There a Youth Engagement Crisis? 08:45 – Social Media, Expectations & Changing Motivations 10:15 – What Younger Professionals Actually Want (4 Key Drivers) 12:15 – Fixing Broken Workflows & Investing in Technology 13:45 – Flexibility, Remote Work & Mental Health 16:15 – Generational Shifts & Workplace Evolution 20:45 – Pay, Autonomy & the Breakdown of the Corporate Ladder 23:45 – ROI of a Happier Workforce 27:00 – How Leaders Can Attract & Retain Talent 34:30 – Workplace Culture, Discrimination & Retention Risks 49:15 – Remote vs. Onsite: Finding the Right Balance 57:30 – Advice for Young Professionals Entering the Industry 1:02:00 – Books, Resources & Final Takeaways

Resources Mentioned:

• Henry Porter LLC — Christina's consultancy
• Package Your Genius by Amanda Miller Littlejohn
• Good American / Emma Grede — entrepreneurship and leadership insights
• Texas Southern University — early pipeline partnership example

Most project failures aren’t caused by a single issue - they’re the result of broken integration.

In this episode, Orion sits down with Ellie Moradinezhad, founder of tactHive Consulting and former Global Discipline Director at Hatch, where she oversaw project management development across 4,000+ projects in 70 countries - to unpack the most misunderstood concept in major project delivery: integration. Ellie introduces a practical three-part framework that separates vertical, horizontal, and cross-functional integration across three domains - systems, procedures, and people - and explains why organizations consistently misread integration failures as personality conflicts. If you've ever watched a project fall apart despite having all the right tools and talent in the room, this episode explains what was actually missing.

Ellie Moradinezhad is the President and Founder of tactHive Consulting, a Canadian advisory firm focused on business-driven PMOs, project governance, and performance improvement for complex capital programs. With 24 years of experience across infrastructure, energy, transportation, and industrial sectors — including Canada's Eglinton Crosstown LRT and GO Expansion — she most recently served as Global Discipline Director for Project Management Development at Hatch (70 offices, 150 countries). 🔗 LinkedIn | tactHive Consulting

Key Takeaways

• Integration is three things, not one. Ellie's framework distinguishes vertical integration (strategy connecting to field execution), horizontal integration (disciplines and functions aligned across the same organization), and cross-functional integration (separate organizations operating as one in JV or collaborative models). Most project teams are actively managing only one of these while the other two quietly break down.
• Your integration problem is being called a people problem. When cross-functional coordination fails, leaders default to blaming personalities. Ellie argues the root cause is almost always structural: role ambiguity, procedures designed for one team that everyone else is forced to use, and tools implemented without cross-discipline training.
• Change management failure starts at bid phase. By the time you're trying to align teams during execution, the structural misalignment is already baked in. Embedding change management from the earliest stages — when roles, norms, and working relationships are first being established — is the highest-leverage intervention available.
• In joint ventures, RACI isn't admin overhead — it's risk management. Ellie walks through how the absence of role clarity in collaborative delivery models creates the ambiguity that causes integration to collapse under schedule pressure and stakeholder conflict.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 — Introduction: Ellie's path from chemical engineering to systems thinking
• 08:15 — What "integration" really means beyond IT and systems
• 16:40 — The three-type, three-domain integration framework explained
• 24:30 — Why organizations misdiagnose integration failures as people problems
• 35:10 — Lessons from joint ventures and collaborative delivery models
• 44:20 — Role clarity and RACI as active risk management tools
• 55:00 — PMO design at scale: Hatch across 4,000 projects and 70 offices
• 1:05:30 — Why change management must start at bid phase
• 1:14:00 — AI's emerging role in planning, reporting, and risk analysis
• 1:22:00 — How systems thinking shapes the next generation of project leaders

Resources Mentioned:

• tactHive Consulting — Ellie's advisory firm
• PMI OPM3 — Organizational Project Management Maturity Model
• PRINCE2 / P3M3 — Project maturity frameworks
• Key concepts: Vertical/Horizontal/Cross-functional Integration, RACI, Systems Thinking, Change Management

Most project teams don’t fail because they lack a plan, they fail because they believe it.

In this episode, Orion sits down with Travis Arlitt, Senior Planning & Field Execution Specialist and co-founder of Day One Model, to unpack a fundamental gap in capital project delivery: the disconnect between planned schedules and field reality.

With over 25 years of experience across global megaprojects, from LNG facilities in Angola and Australia to refinery rebuilds and offshore platforms - Travis shares how traditional planning approaches often mask real risk instead of revealing it.

The conversation centers on two powerful ideas: execution realism and progress truth, a way of measuring performance based on actual production rates rather than static plans. Travis explains how focusing on real pace, rather than variance to plan, enables earlier decisions, clearer accountability, and dramatically better outcomes.

Through real-world examples, including decisions that saved hundreds of millions of dollars, Travis introduces the concept of “bow waves” (hidden schedule compression) and how his Day One Model reframes project forecasting into a forward-looking, action-driven system.

They also explore why incentives drive misalignment across projects, how reporting structures distort reality, and where AI is beginning to genuinely help project teams, particularly in reducing manual workload and improving planning speed.

If you’ve ever felt that schedules don’t reflect what’s actually happening in the field, this episode will fundamentally change how you think about progress, forecasting, and decision-making.

• Day One Model (Travis Arlitt) – Progress-based planning approach 👉 https://goforward.dayonemodel.com
• The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
• The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand
• Reality Transurfing – Vadim Zeland
• The Alter Ego Effect – Todd Herman
• Freakonomics – Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
• AACE International – Project controls resources and recommended practices

Capital projects generate enormous amounts of data, yet many important project decisions are still made without timely access to the information teams need. When plans inevitably break and conditions change, leaders often lack the transparency required to respond quickly and confidently. The issue is not a lack of data, but a gap between the systems collecting information and the tools teams use to make decisions. This presentation explores why traditional reporting approaches fail to support real-time decision-making and how organizations can close the gap by building stronger data foundations, clearer reporting layers, and AI-driven insights that deliver the right information to the right people at the moment decisions happen.

What does it really take to staff, structure, and control multi-billion-dollar programs?

Ahmed AbdelSalam shares hard-earned lessons on resource planning, building high-impact PMOs, and how AI is reshaping project controls.

In this episode of The Major Project Podcast, Orion sits down with Ahmed AbdelSalam, a senior PMO and project controls leader who has delivered multi-billion-dollar programs across life sciences, healthcare, and technology sectors. With experience spanning CBRE, Turner & Townsend, and Fortune 500 portfolios, Ahmed shares practical insights from both the owner-rep and program leadership perspective.

The conversation begins with resource planning - why the right people determine project success, and how owners should think about insourcing vs. outsourcing, career paths, visa constraints, compensation strategy, and long-term retention. Ahmed outlines a structured approach to building a resource plan, from defining project complexity to aligning with client culture and long-term portfolio needs.

They then dive deep into PMO strategy, breaking down the difference between advisory, supporting, and controlling PMO models. Ahmed explains how modern PMOs create visibility, standardization, and accountability across large programs - covering cost, schedule, risk, procurement, finance, data analytics, document control, and communications.

The episode closes with a forward-looking discussion on AI in project controls. While AI is already transforming reporting, dashboards, and communication, Ahmed argues it’s not a replacement for human judgment - rather, it’s a productivity amplifier for teams navigating today’s tight talent market.

If you’re building or staffing billion-dollar programs, this episode is packed with practical frameworks and leadership lessons.

• How to build a structured resource plan for complex programs
• When to insource vs. outsource project controls functions
• The real differences between advisory, supporting, and controlling PMOs
• Why standardization (WBS, reporting, governance) is critical at scale
• How AI is impacting reporting, estimating, scheduling, and communication
• Why career growth - not compensation - is the #1 driver of employee engagement

Risk isn’t a scary “extra” - it’s the reason projects succeed or spiral. ⚠️

Kim Essendrup, co-host of Project Management Happy Hour and founder of RAIDLOG.com, joins Orion for a practical Risk 101 breakdown - and how RAID logs help teams stay proactive instead of reactive.

In this episode of The Major Project Podcast, Orion sits down with Kim Essendrup - co-host of the widely followed Project Management Happy Hour podcast and founder of RAIDLOG.com, a platform built around one of the most useful tools in practical project delivery: the RAID log.

Kim brings the conversation back to fundamentals with a full Risk 101 walkthrough: what risk actually is, why projects are statistically more likely to struggle than succeed, and why risk management isn’t about pessimism - it’s about being honest and prepared. He shares research and real-world context showing how frequently projects face major overruns and failures, reinforcing why project leaders have to pause and ask: “Where can this go off the rails - and what can we do now to prevent it?”

Kim explains that effective risk management starts at the source of the project itself - the charter, contract, statement of work, or initiation document - where assumptions, dependencies, and blind spots often begin. From there, teams should expand the conversation through workshops, lessons learned, and similar historical projects to build a realistic picture of threats and opportunities.

He also digs into the culture challenge: why many organizations avoid risk conversations entirely, and how strong project leaders create psychological safety so teams can speak candidly about what might go wrong. One of Kim’s most practical tactics is a subtle language shift - using the word “obstacles” instead of “risks” -to help teams move from avoidance to action.

A major highlight of the episode is Kim’s breakdown of what a RAID log really is: an integrated way to track Risks, Actions, Issues, and Decisions (and historically: Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies). He describes the RAID log as the “run tool” of project delivery -the place where project leaders monitor reality, spot drift, and course-correct early.

Finally, Kim shares how AI is already changing the space. He describes how his team built an AI-based risk identification feature that can generate meaningful risk registers from a project description - sometimes matching 75% of what experienced teams create manually. He closes with a simple but powerful truth: the best RAID log tip isn’t complicated… it’s use it consistently, because the moment teams stop tracking risk, risk starts tracking them.

• The true definition of project risk -and why most projects need risk management from day one
• How to start identifying risks using the contract/charter as the “source of truth”
• Why teams avoid risk discussions -and how leaders build a healthy risk culture
• The difference between mitigate, avoid, transfer, and accept risk responses
• Why “risk” also includes opportunity -and how to capture upside outcomes
• What a RAID log is and why it’s the operational backbone of delivery
• How to scale a risk process for small projects vs. billion-dollar programs
• Where AI is already helping: risk identification, meta-analysis, and portfolio insights
• Kim’s #1 tip: the best RAID log is the one you actually keep up to date

• RAIDLOG.com
• Podcast: Project Management Happy Hour

What if your 3D model could predict schedule risk, expose cost blind spots, and align everyone—from the field to the boardroom? 🧩

BIM and digital-delivery expert Omar Habib joins Orion to break down how 4D, 5D, and data-driven storytelling are transforming billion-dollar projects.

In this episode of The Major Project Podcast, Orion sits down with Omar Habib - Co-Founder & CTO of The WE Group and a global leader in BIM and digital delivery - to unpack how data, visualization, and technology are reshaping billion-dollar projects.

Omar shares his unconventional path into mega-projects, having worked on multi-billion-dollar programs before graduating and rotating through planning, cost, procurement, and contracts. That early exposure shaped his belief that BIM only delivers value when it connects engineering, schedule, cost, and decision-making - not when it lives in isolation.

A core theme of the episode is redefining BIM as Building Information Management, not just modeling. Omar explains the progression from 3D to 4D (time), 5D (cost), and beyond, and why each added dimension improves clarity, alignment, and risk awareness when applied intentionally.

He shares real-world examples of 4D simulations used to test sequencing, crane placement, logistics, and constructability - allowing teams to “see” problems before they show up on site. Importantly, Omar stresses that BIM maturity isn’t all-or-nothing; many successful transformations start small, solving one painful problem at a time.

The conversation closes with a look at AI in construction, where Omar highlights practical use cases already delivering value - claims analysis, schedule QA, quantity takeoffs, and audits - while reinforcing that AI works best when guided by strong domain expertise.

• What BIM really means - and why it’s about information, not just models
• How 3D → 4D → 5D → 6D unlocks better cost, schedule, and sustainability decisions
• How 4D simulations help teams plan cranes, logistics, methods, and site congestion
• Why BIM maturity is not all-or-nothing—and how to start mid-project
• How to use BIM and Power BI to create a single source of truth
• Why finance and project controls often disagree - and how integrated data resolves it
• Practical strategies for communicating risk visually to executives
• Real-world AI use cases in claims, scheduling, quantities, and QA/QC
• Career advice for BIM professionals: tools, standards, and technical depth

• “How Big Things Get Done” — Bent Flyvbjerg & Dan Gardner

• Building Information Management vs. Modeling
• 2D → 3D → 4D (time) → 5D (cost) → 6D (sustainability)
• Revit, Navisworks, Dynamo, ACC (Autodesk Construction Cloud)
• BIM uses vs. BIM maturity levels
• Federated 4D models and discipline integration

• The WE Group - https://thewegroup.com
• Autodesk Construction Cloud - https://construction.autodesk.com
• Microsoft Power BI - https://powerbi.microsoft.com
• ISO 19650 - https://www.iso.org/standard/68078.html