Meet Elizabeth

Speaker, Author, APM Fellow

parent, cat-owner, bookworm

I bring 20+ years of corporate project management experience to my training, writing and consulting work.

Along the way, I realised that delivering successful projects has less to do with the ‘what’ and more to do with the ‘who’.

Focusing on community brings results because it’s people that make change happen. I saw this in my roles at American Express, AXA and Spire Healthcare, whether I was leading IT, transformation, business change or process improvement projects.

I began writing about project management long before I had a blog, but in 2006, as I was working on my first book, Project Management in the Real World (since updated and republished in second edition as Shortcuts to Success), I decided to go online. I started blogging at GirlsGuideToPM.com, which became Rebel’s Guide to Project Management in 2022, to document my lived experience as a project manager and with a focus of drawing attention to the contribution of women in the profession.

Since then, I have had the privilege to speak at international conferences, write more books, contribute to many publications, and deliver training for project professionals all over the world through the wonders of technology.

The world of work doesn’t always turn out like it says in the textbooks…especially when other people get involved. Project work relies on teams being able to collaborate, but competing priorities, poor processes and a ton of other problems often get in the way.

And yet, we are doing more work in a project-led way. Whether I’m on stage, developing training materials for other providers, putting new ideas in a book or blog post, my goal is to help individuals feel competent and capable so they are confident picking and mixing proven methods to get their work done.

In my corporate life, I spent too many nights losing sleep because I was worried about work, or what people thought of me at work. Competence, confidence and credibility were key to me being able to step into leadership roles and become seen as a safe pair of hands. I sleep better at night knowing I’m doing the best job I can do, that I am acting in alignment with my values and that I am sticking to ethical principles when I work with others. I want that for you.

The work environment is personally, financially and professionally rewarding, humbling and tricky all at the same time. And it’s certainly not cookie-cutter! With the skills to navigate that, my goal is for the people and organisations I work with to become unstoppable leaders.