School appoints Sue Kershaw, KPMG, as new visiting Professor

We are pleased to announce Sue Kershaw has been appointed as a new visiting Professor at the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management, subject to contract. Sue is the Managing Director of the Major Projects Advisory and the UK Head of Infrastructure Programme and Project Management at KPMG. 

Sue is currently responsible to the Secretary of State for assuring that HS2 ltd effectively delivers the HS2 project (£56.5 bn) in a timely and cost effective way, providing value for money for the government and the required service that end users expect. 

In addition to her work on project management and client delivery models, Sue has developed the concept of ‘progressive assurance’ to provide clients with greater reliability, confidence and the certainty they need to deliver complex projects, programmes, portfolios and that their return on investment and successful outcomes are assured. 

Sue has been collaborating with our School for several years, particularly supporting the School’s research into wider projects and why they are successful. 

Sue commented on the appointment:

I am looking forward to developing the connection between academia, the industry and the profession and transferring knowledge. I’ll be focussing on two main areas. The first is sponsorship, which I am really passionate about – having the right people in the right places to make those tough decisions. The second is progressive assurance, a concept I’ve developed. I’m embedded in the HS2 project to assure it runs to time and within budget, and it is within those parameters that I’ll be working with the School, and with Professor Andrew Davies, to collaborate and develop academic and industry practice. Surely we can do things better in major project delivery– and what does better look like? 

Prof Andrew Davies, Professor in the management of projects at the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management commented: 

I’m delighted that Sue Kershaw will be a Royal Academy of Engineering RAEng visiting Professor with our School. Sue will help us build stronger connections between our teaching and industrial practice by helping us with industrial placements, mentoring, selecting real-world assignments for group work and developing new course material. Sue will be starting in September 2019.

The visiting Professorship is supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering, though their Visiting Professorship programme. The industry-into-academia initiative aims to utilise the experience of the visiting Professors to enhance student learning as well as the employability and skills of UK engineering graduates while strengthening external partnerships. 

Sue Kershaw was Director of Rail, Europe for CH2MHILL and a Board member of the Association for Project Management.  Previously Sue was Director of Programme Management for Grosvenor Britain and Ireland and prior to this, Sue was Deputy Director of Transport for the Olympic Delivery Authority, responsible for all rail and road transport for the games and the programme management of the wider portfolio.

Sue is a Civil Engineer, and an avid promoter of programme management as a discipline. She is an advocate for the equality, diversity and inclusion agenda in her professional, and voluntary work, and actively supports initiatives to raise awareness of these issues.

Sue also fully supports the engagement of industry, the engineering professions and education sector in working together to plug the critical skills gap in engineering and programme management we have in the UK.