Project Manager Management

Mike Cepalo, M.Sc., M.Eng., PMP®

Ottawa, K*E *C* ON Canada 613-***-**** *******@*******.*** linkedin.com/in/mcepalo

PROJECT MANAGER PROJECT DIRECTOR BUSINESS ANALYST AND CONSULTANT

Strategic Projects, Portfolio, and Project professional who successfully grows business by leading multi-million-dollar multidiscipline or specialized automation (I&C) and electrical programs and projects with a business growth approach and global-international exposure. Verifiable track record of successful Projects, Programs, and Strategic Portfolio management across several business verticals in Energy, Renewables, Nuclear, LNG, Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, F&B, W/WW, IT/OT, and others. Instilled passion for excellence in project execution and client relationship development in projects and service operations teams in the EPC environment. Performed successful EPC project audits and remediation in complex and business-sensitive situations. Directed full range of operations for high-tech geographically disbursed projects from pre-FEED and Project Creation to Start-Up and Operations, managing PMs and leading projects directly.

HIGHLIGHTED EXPERTISE

Business Strategy, AOP & P&L Ownership Business Transformation EPC business Change Management & Continuous Improvement Client Relationship IT / OT / Cyber security PMO & EVMS Setup Project Governance Cloud Project Engineering & Execution Talent Attraction & Retention Team Leadership

WORK AUTHORIZATION & SECURITY CLEARANCES

Canadian Citizenship European Union – Schengen

Canadian Federal Government Enhanced Security Clearance Canadian Nuclear Worker Security Clearance

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Technomics Canada Inc, Ottawa, Canada

Project Management and Project Control SME – contract May 2024

Seconded as a senior project management and project controls consultant to SkyAlyne on a 12 billion $ contract with the Canadian Department of National Defense for Future Aircraft Training (FAcT):

Develop a post-award Integrated Program Schedule and PMO setup for project governance

Develop project governance for EPC subcontractors

Develop plan and implement Earn Value Management System in full compliance with EIA 748 as requested by DND

Dokainish & Company, Ottawa, Canada

Project Management and Project Control Advisor to Operations Director – contract July 2023 – May 2024

Working as a project management and project controls consultant to the Science and Technology Program Director at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories:

Develop initial budget and cost estimate for Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) and Kyoto fusioneering (KF) JV for fusion fuel (Hydrogen, Deuterium, Tritium) plant/system.

Develop initial WBS, equipment list, instrument list, cost, and resource planning.

Prepared budget revision for CNL – KF JV inauguration

Johnson Controls Canada LP / Sustainable Infrastructure, Ottawa, Canada

Project Executive / Project Director May 2022 – June 2023

Hired by JCC-LP to prepare and lead the field execution of a $250M+ program for energy conservation and GHG reduction. Supported initial business case preparation that has resulted in the award of MCC (Master Construction Contract) from Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and the selection of JCCLP as an EPC partner and Major Strategic partner. Led the operations team and functioned as a project manager supporting Sales and Engineering for projects such as building retrofits, energy centers, microgrids with distributed energy resources, and others. An early business case calculation confirmed a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and qualification for a CIB (Canadian Investment Bank) loan. Energy saving with GHG credit will ensure self-financing for the whole or a significant part of the program.

Established CNL compatible and contractually required full back-office support with Primavera Scheduling and EVMS reporting. Early introduction of Procore® as a project management tool and dashboard in the design phase.

Co-developed a program-level WBS dictionary for a multiyear energy performance contract with JCC-LP as the main EPC contractor and an ISO 9001-compliant document management numbering and archiving system.

Established a security clearance process for JCCLP and all EPC subcontractors and created RFPQ (request for pre-qualification) questionnaire and process to prequalify all consultants and subcontractors.

Established framework for JCC-LP Project office ISO 9001 certification and made early framework for CRA N299.3 implementation.

Built a functional EPC project operations support team with internal and consulting resources to ensure project and program reporting that fully complies with CNL T&C.

Supported the early introduction and technical integration of several Energy reduction measures and sub-projects on the IT/OT level via the JCC-LP Open Blue IT/OT integration platform.

Faithful + Gould / SNC-Lavalin, Chalk River, Canada

Lead Project Manager / Project Director assigned to Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) June 2020 – May 2022

Engaged in the business transformation of CNL to a highly functioning, profitable, world-class nuclear institution privately operated under government ownership. The assignment focused on applying the most effective Client project management principles of Earn Value Management and business transformation with the most updated IT and OT tools and systems deployment. Worked as Lead PM in Environmental Remediation Management and Facilities Decommissioning function in CNL.

Driven strategic transformations of the business approach from a government entity to a business-oriented, profit-making, and socially responsible private-public entity.

In fiscal year 20/21 worked in the PM team managing multidiscipline EPC projects with more than 100 mill. $ in value.

The deployment business group has been declared the best project management group in CNL.

The SPI in the 20/21 fiscal year improved from 0.67 to 1.05 and the CPI from 0.56 to 1.01 despite the impact of Covid-19.

Supported approval for three projects with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).

Led and executed mission-critical upgrade on a Nuclear Wastewater treatment plant with the most stringent QA requirement and special logic development of Process Controls System (PCS) and Safety Instrumented System (SIS), done under the approved budget and on time with internal resources commissioning and start-up.

Led and executed the late-stage design and implementation of an advanced technology skid for water ingress removal from a Solid waste storage tile hole, a project designed and executed with internal resources and minor advisory support.

In addition, during two years of assignment, led about 15 successful projects, including the implementation of new Radiological Sampling tracking software and the setup of a New Waste operations laboratory building.

Schneider Electric, Houston, USA, and Ottawa, CAN

Global Delivery Director for ExxonMobil Strategic Account Aug 2015 – March 2020

Led the combined Project, Service, and technical activities needed to turn around declining business results and ensure Schneider Electric's return on the Approved Vendor List with ExxonMobil. Led activities with a cross-functional matrixed team while focusing on business objectives, intensively using remote and virtual project work. Fostered effective executive, technical, and project-level governance, communication, and reporting. Part of a three-person Strategic Account team that turned around the relationship and business with ExxonMobil from declining to one with the biggest perspective among Schneider Electric O&G Strategic Accounts.

Built a specific ExxonMobil Portfolio Review process for Schneider Electric Projects and Services with ExxonMobil from the ground up. Monitored and reported on 40-50 projects at any time, with a full Review of Major Projects representing a more than $80M portfolio. Projects were fully globally distributed, and review was remote and virtual.

Led successful technical approval by ExxonMobil for Schneider Electric’s new technology, software, and FLEX® project execution methodology based on the full use of cloud and virtual engineering. All these were declared fully compliant with the “It Just Happens” requirement, leading to Schneider Electric's return to the Preferred Vendor List for new Greenfield projects with ExxonMobil.

Worked on early re-FEED work of ExxonMobil Mozambique LNG (Rovuma) mega-project, resulting in the first Major Project win of ExxonMobil Greenfield project for Schneider Electric (Invensys) since 2010. Booked as the win of $220M across several business lines of Schneider Electric.

As Major Project Director, drove the success of a $14.4M brownfield upgrade of ExxonMobil BPEP plant in Beaumont, TX, with multi-stage showdown and upgrade of DCS / SIS / Network and Cyber Security strengthening.

Supported Major Projects review and audit processes for all Strategic and Major Projects in Schneider Electric Process Automation, including Major Nuclear projects during SE Nuclear Projects Business merger and acquisition by Framatome.

Schneider Electric Middle East, Doha, Qatar

Sr. Delivery Manager for Qatar, Oman, & Yemen Jan 2009 – Aug 2015

Led the transformation of Delivery and Operations in the territory. The target was to grow business by expanding each in-country team’s capabilities and providing operations, technical leadership, and expertise for diverse businesses across the three-country territory. Accountable for P&L, revenue generation, and execution of Annual Operating Plan (AOP), supporting topline and owning a bottom line. Successfully performed the combined role of Project Director with a complete set of PMO responsibilities and Manager-Client and Service Support, covering the full scope of Operation in P&L. Transformed the business from a satellite office to the best-performing Territory in the Middle East.

Led projects and services delivery teams in achieving success through explosive business growth. The territory had high regional and global importance. Territory grew from $8M in FY2008 to $56M in FY2015.

Attracted and managed talent to transform the Projects & Services Delivery team from an incoherent group of 12 engineers to a highly structured team of > 50 Project & Service Professionals. The team had members from >10 nations and a visible percentage of highly skilled female Engineers, a rare achievement for the Oil & Gas in Qatar.

Managed operations in a complex matrixed organization with most members of the project teams reporting outside of my territory to regional and global functional lines. Successfully used 3rd party resources and System Integrators to deliver successful Software projects and Advance applications (Invensys Software).

Managed with PMs in the team or direct portfolio of 20-30 projects in each FY with a high number of major and international projects (> 10mill US). The project portfolio had a mix of new projects, upgrades, and expansions, combining Hardware, Software, Advance applications, and Cybersecurity strengthening.

Successfully established major service contracts for a complete installed base of Qatar Gas, RasGas and Yemen LNG with revenue exceeding $2M/year for basic support. My team was responsible for supporting 30% of World LNG production at the time with service and installed base upgrade projects.

Co-creator of 2 critical Internal Business Transformations studies and projects

oiDeliver program - created methodology and software for Brownfield Project + Engineering management workflow.

oMAC Center of Excellence – study created a business plan for the “internal start-up” of a new business unit that in charge of full project execution of MAC type of projects in Invensys.

Acting as Territory Managing Director for most of 2010, managing Sales team, targets, and sales pipeline in addition to full Delivery responsibility, achieved total AOP targets with significant improvement on the backlog for next year.

Invensys Middle East, Singapore, SG and Doha, Qatar

Project Manager, Site Manager – RasGas LNG Train 6 & 7 Dec 2006 – Jan 2009

Managed RGX2 mega project in the post-FAT stage and during construction and start-up. The project scope had a fully integrated control system ICSS, the two largest LNG trains in the world. Overall EPC budget of $2. 2B; with $25M for Invensys scope to provide a fully integrated control system (DCS / SIS FGS, network, FO cabinets, power distribution) with the full set of Invensys advanced application and hardware for asset management, loop optimization, alarm management, lab management link with Pi (OSI Soft) and GE Mark 9E.

Managed and trained a team of more than 30-35 new Invensys Engineers with less than 2 yr. of experience. Ensured perfect HSE record without a safety incident or reported LTA during 18 months of site work.

Cooperating with EPC and Client PMT (ExxonMobil), the Invensys site team achieved full System readiness for Start-Up ahead of the last updated schedule despite implementing many first-time solutions for Client, EPC, and Invensys.

Due to design changes on Train 7, Train 6 had to fully re-engineer the DCS and SIS on-site application. Led the team to overcome this setback and organizational issues to start the project on schedule, providing stringent control of the mobilized workforce.

Achieved total Client satisfaction by providing additional site services (SPI-Intools administration, Loop-Tuning, etc.) and ensured site support revenue of 20 mill$ over 2,5 years of site support, exceeding the initial plan several times.

ADDITIONAL RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

Technip, Abu Dhabi - UAE, Paris - FR

Lead I&C Discipline Engineer

Coca-Cola HBC, Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Project Engineer, Engineering and Maintenance Manager

EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Master of Science in Project Management, University of Liverpool, School of Management, Liverpool, UK

Master of Engineering (Dipl. Ing.) - Major Control Systems, Vojno Technicki Fakultet – Zagreb, Croatia

CERTIFICATES

Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification Project Management Institute – PMI

Agile Hybrid Project Pro certification Project Management Institute - PMI

Certified Professional Automation and Control Engineer (P. Eng equivalent) Bosnia & Herzegovina / EU

Eligible for P. Eng and membership with PEO Ontario, Canada

Project Management and Conflict Resolution Certificate World Bank & Austrian Peace Study Institute

Contact this candidate