The Major Project Podcast

150+ Years of Project Controls Wisdom: Lessons from Four AACE Presidents

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. Timestamps 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 Featured Guests * 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

015 - The Talent Crisis in Project Controls: Why the Next Generation Is Opting Out

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/ [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 [https://henryporterllc.com/] — 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

014 - Systems Thinking in Megaprojects: How to Fix Broken Integration

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 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellie-moradinezhad/] | tactHive Consulting [https://tact-hive.com/] 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 [https://tact-hive.com/] — Ellie's advisory firm * PMI OPM3 [https://www.pmi.org/] — Organizational Project Management Maturity Model * PRINCE2 / P3M3 — Project maturity frameworks * Key concepts: Vertical/Horizontal/Cross-functional Integration, RACI, Systems Thinking, Change Management

013 - Execution Realism: Why Most Project Schedules Lie (and How to Fix Them) with Travis Arlitt

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. 📚 Mentioned in This Episode * Day One Model (Travis Arlitt) – Progress-based planning approach 👉 https://goforward.dayonemodel.com [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

012 - Live Podcast: From Technical Experts to Industry Leaders: Lessons from 100+ Years of Project Controls

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.