Alan Harpham

Alan describes himself as being on his 4th career, as what Charles Handy calls ‘a portfolio manager’.  Alan is an independent management consultant; focused on programme management, project management and executive coaching – individuals and teams.

He is co-owner and a founding director of P5 – the Power of Projects, a consultancy specialising in the application of project and programme management in owner/client organisations (see www.p5.co.uk).  He is also the part-time Chairman of the APM Group, an Accreditation, Registration and Examination Certification Body for key elements of Best Practice in programme and project management. It works with its main partners - the Office of Government Commerce (OGC),

The Stationery Office and the Chartered Management Institute - to develop a wide range of activities that broaden the application of Best practice.  The Group was originally established as the trading arm of the Association for Project Management, but is now independent (see www.apmgroup.co.uk).  He is an unpaid executive coach with Subject Matters, a consultancy specializing in organizing business-to-business events, conferences and exhibitions (see www.subjectmatters.co.uk). 

He is a director of a dormant consultancy, SOAR Ltd (Spiritual Organisations and Reality) – SOAR intends to establish itself as a consultancy that can help individuals and organizations to discover their own spirituality, and work to enhance their spiritual well-being and performance.  He is also a trustee of a number of charitable organisations including MODEM, (see www.modem.uk.com) and the Friends of the Bedford Child Development Centre.

He is a former Managing Director and senior consultant of Nichols Associates (now part of The Nichols Group), one of the UK’s leading consultancies in project and change management.  Before this Alan was an early Director of Cranfield University’s MSc in Project Management and started his own project management consultancy.  Alan’s early career was as an engineer and line manager with John Laing, where he rose to become Overseas Contracts Manager for its M & E activities.  His M & E experience included construction of the UK’s first major North Sea oilrig, and a large contract for a PVC plant in Poland where he took a significant proportion of the workforce from the U.K.

Alan has been extensively involved in:

• Project Management assignments to review and develop strategies on behalf of owner/client companies for major capital projects and other strategic initiatives.

• Consulting assignments with many owner/client companies to help them review and develop the way in which they programme and project manage their own capital investment programmes.  This has included developing and implementing many ‘Project Improvement Programmes’; creating programmes of related ‘soft’ projects to change the investment management culture of the company concerned.  Alan has also worked with a number of suppliers and contractors to enhance their marketing and project management performance.

• Personal development and Executive coaching programmes for over 100 major clients in many diverse sectors, including: aerospace, construction, financial services, health care, IS/IT, manufacturing, transportation and utilities. 

• He has presented and written on – management by projects, the Politics and politics of projects, managing cultural differences, the Project Context, Maturity Models, Life-work balance, Spirit at Work, Why would a businessman study theology?, and many other topics.