TOCICO

In his early career, Simon spent 8 years in microbiology laboratories in the brewing industry, before moving into Quality Assurance in the Pharmaceutical industry at GSK in 1999. He has worked in a number of roles at GSK, including laboratory management and business Improvement, before moving into project management where he has worked for the last 13 years in both New Product introduction, Site Strategy, and PMO functions. These roles involve liaising closely with multiple teams both on and off-site and leading a team of project managers and planners to project manage the technology transfer and commercialization of new medicines. Simon has an MSc in Industrial Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Manchester and is currently in the final year of an MSc in Industrial Project Management at the University of Birmingham – where he first came across critical chain. Simon lives in the northeast of England. He enjoys hill walking and is a daily gym goer and he and his wife go sea swimming every weekend throughout the year (which can be a bit of a challenge in January in the UK’s North Sea!).

Ian is an Associate Professor of Project Management at the University of Birmingham (UK). He is a late-career academic, joining the University after 35 years of working in project management, procurement and management consulting. His project & procurement experience primarily in the capex, construction & engineering fields. He has been a regular TOCICO Conference attendee since 2011, and in 2020 he helped set up the annual Critical Chain virtual conference, to share CC real world experience with project management practitioners who have little or no knowledge of TOC or critical chain. In 2016 he published “The Executive Guide to Breakthrough Project Management” about overcoming obstacles to using critical chain on capital/construction projects, in collaboration with Robert Bolton, and he supported Rene Nibbelke in producing the APM’s “Senior Managers’ and Project Managers’ Guide to Critical Chain” (2024