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Mark Kozak-Holland

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PhD, B.Sc., CPMA (IPMA-D), PMP, Cert.APM, CMP

In an era of increasing competition and uncertainty, the business world is in an on-going struggle with rapid technological and market change. Mark Kozak-Holland combines a deep background in business and IT, visioning, and an understanding of the recent past to assist clients in evaluating this change and how enabling technology can be applied, to transform their business, and assess its impact on process/people.

Mark's 40 years professional career in consulting/project management with project-based services organizations (DXC Technology, HP/HPe, IBM, Tandem Computers, SHL Systemhouse) has been all client-facing on initiatives. As part of strategic transformation teams or the “tip of the spear” he has teamed up with clients in nurturing these initiatives into real programs/projects. He has extensive experience (25 years) in program/project management within complex business transition and transformation, and considerable senior leadership experience. He has delivered 200+ client-facing professional service engagements which have:

  1. Spanned multiple industries globally, in all phases of projects (initiation to implementation)
  2. Ranged from explorations/assessments to prototypes/pilots, to multi-year programs
  3. Started tactically but evolved into the strategic & complex
  4. Evaluated how enabling technologies can be applied to the client’s business, their impact on process/people, and the business justification
  5. Solved client problems & made insights into new opportunities
  6. Created client solutions from combined technology, process changes, and organizational adjustments

With a deep background in IT, Mark assists clients in evaluating change and how enabling technology can be applied to and transform their business, and assess its impact on process/people. Mark has an architectural understanding of how IT works as an enabler of transformation and a good comprehension of how the digital future is coming together and the strategies required to shape it. He is keenly aware of key trends, opportunities, and issues in the evolving digital enterprise marketplace.

What differentiates Mark’s approach is he draws on his unique series of publications which reinterpret our industrial past and explain the impact of change, enabling technologies, projects, and transformation for today's business world. Through his research, he has a deep insight into how we have been visioning and reimagining a future world, the effect of 3 Industrial Revolutions (past 300 years), and the transformative projects that impacted society on all levels. He has authored over 15 books, audiobooks, and DVDs in addition to many academic white papers and articles published in journals and magazines worldwide. As a result, he has become a recognized keynote business conference speaker (250+ conferences and seminars) and a guest university lecturer.

Mark has further augmented his approach through academic research he completed for his Ph.D. in the field of Project Management, with extensive research into the theories behind PM and the practice of PM. He has written academic papers published in leading PM journals related to knowledge transfer/translation across disciplines and adapting it into practice. He established a methodology for identifying, synthesizing and interpreting lessons from case studies and previous transformational projects for the business world. Recently he extensively researched the challenge of digital transformations and managing transformation projects to understand the challenges of innovation projects and why transformation prevails over optimization.

He is a recognized professional in the project management discipline and has completed extensive research into projects and their transformative effect on organizations which has resulted in published works (2020).

Awards and Recognition

He is a PMI-certified Project Management Professional (PMP), is certified by IBM in the Consultant Profession, and by the International Project Management Association (IPMA) as a Senior Project Manager (IPMA Level D).

Winner at OCTAS, a competition honored by the Fédération de l'informatique du Québec for most innovative IT project. This is a major occasion in the province of Quebec: http://www.fiq.qc.ca/evenements.htm#laureats

Compaq Services recognition for the development, evolution, and promotion of the Business Discovery program.

Education

Ph.D. in Project Management, Salford Business School, University of Salford 2013-2014, thesis titled “The Relevance of Historical Project Lessons to Contemporary Business Practice”.

B.Sc. with Joint Honours degree in Computer Science and Statistics 1980-1983 (University of Salford, UK).

 

CSTD  IPMA Level D   Cert.APM

 

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

Testimonials

 

 

Links

LinkedIn
Blog

Specialties

Industry

Cross-Industry, Information Technology, Professional Services, Research & Development

Areas

Business Analysis, Business Architecture, Business Assessment, Business Process Modeling, Business Process Review, Change Management, Conflict Resolution, Curriculum Development, Customer Service, Governance, Methodologies, Organizational Development, Organizational Strategy, PM Competence Assessment, Presentation Design and Delivery, Process Change, Program Management, Project Audits, Project Health Checks, Project Management, Project Management Training, Project Portfolio Management, Project/Program Strategy, Requirements Gathering, Stakeholder Engagement, Strategic IS Planning, Strategic Planning, Systems Development Lifecycle, Systems Integration

Videos

Procept - Evaluating Project Management as a Discipline

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CBC News Interview for Project Management Blunders

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Ancient Egyptians and the Giza Pyramid Project

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Titanic - Project Management Blunders

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Interview with Mark Kozk Holland part 1 IET MyCommunity

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Interview with Mark Kozak Holland part 2 IET MyCommunity

Mark Kozak-Holland presented a fascinating seminar to our group. For thousands of years, the greatest teachers have used stories to effectively illustrate important concepts. Mark proves that history provides amazing stories with powerful lessons that provide value for today’s world. His speaking and writing styles are entertaining, educational and effective. He is always a crowd favorite.
Vince Socci: President, Platform Division, LHP Software

Mark is an extraordinary consultant - his business acumen, indepth IT knowledge and interpersonal skills make working with him effortless. He is very driven, focused yet thought-provoking. As a CIO, I needed someone who has been there, done that and could hit the ground running, Mark is that unique resource.
John Keogh, CIO:

Mark Kozak-Holland presented a fascinating seminar to our group. For thousands of years, the greatest teachers have used stories to effectively illustrate important concepts. Mark proves that history provides amazing stories with powerful lessons that provide value for today’s world. His speaking and writing styles are entertaining, educational and effective. He is always a crowd favorite.
Vince Socci, President, Platform Division at LHP Engineering Solutions:

Mark was the opening key note speaker for the PMI UK IPM day in November 09, which I chaired.
What a fascinating talk we had around the way the Titanic project was brought together the pitfalls and decisions that were made that led to that fateful iceberg. Bringing history to life and relating it to the issues of project management today, thoroughly enjoyed and recommended.
Patrick Bird, Communication Excellence Trainer and Facilitator. Professional Speaker and Event Compere:

After reading many of Mark's articles in Project Manager Today and Gantthead.com I invited Mark to speak at the BCS Chartered Insitute for IT (Manchester, UK). He was and is a fantastic, energetic speaker who appears to seamlessly adapt to how to present his knowledge using the Titantic series. I have no doubts about the interest he portrays in his presentations and the engagement of his audience and would recommend anyone to listen and read Mark's works.
Andy Jordan MBCS CITP, R&D Project Manager at SG Gaming:

Mark is passionate about project management and business analysis. He brings a unique perspective by analyzing historical events and extracting lessons learned that can be used today. He has deep understanding of PM and BA processes/techniques, and is able to explain not only the "how" but also the "why" behind them in very simple terms. As an author, he is easy to work with through the editing and production processes, and actively works to promote his books. He is also a fascinating and dynamic speaker, comfortable speaking to audiences of all sizes.
Kevin Aguanno, Senior Consultant at GenXus:

Really excellent integration of historical perspective into PM context.
Jeff Zalusky:

The City of Los Angeles and its Emergency Management Department have used the information presented by Mark to increase its emergency preparedness activities and our understanding of effective project management. We were pleased to be able to bring Mark to Los Angeles and share the information with our Executive Management. If any agency is interested in evaluating project management success and thinks a self evaluation would be useful, the Lessons From History offerings are the best course of action.
Anna Burton: Assistant General Manager, City of Los Angeles

The presentation on how lessons from the building and maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic are applicable for today's projects was outstanding. What was particularly useful was how you related the PMBOK knowledge areas to that project, and then discussed with our panelists the parallels that could then be drawn with our agency's projects. It was a perfect example of how, even on the best run projects, the results may be disastrous if shortcuts are taken in quality assurance and control.
Bob Morse, PMP: Chief, Cloud Technology and Hosting Office, US Courts