Avoiding $Billion Project Failures

Mark’s career started at 14, working as a boilermaker, fitter and toolmaker on small projects, and in parallel, he continued his education through to completing degrees in mining and mechanical engineering. With that education and experience, he rapidly progressed to leadership roles in the mining and construction industries, reaching the boardroom at 30. Responsible for a portfolio of major capital projects as the principal contractor, Mark was exposed to and became a specialist in project turnaround and recovery. He learned early about the deadly project sins that derail projects and their goals and objectives. In the decades that followed, and seeking and thriving on complex challenges, Mark found a home in dealing with the unparalleled risks of delivering $Billion ultra-large projects. With CEO qualities and judgement and the acquired art and science of project delivery, Mark established and built both an owner’s representative company and a principal contractor business. Both companies were mid-tier and mid-size but competed with the tier ones; for compliance and performance and by being nimble and fast to act, they gained a reputation across project sites as the benchmark contractor clients and advisors pointed to. The global commodity price crash in 2014 redirected Mark’s energy and passion into assembling and codifying his complete project delivery knowledge with the objective of mitigating the deadly project sins the world has made a habit of committing. This book is one of the ways he intends to share this knowledge with the world.