The Major Project Podcast

About half of all US data centers scheduled to open this year are delayed or canceled. Hannah Garrett isn't surprised. She's been watching tech and construction try to figure each other out for a decade, and says the real problem isn't energy, equipment, or even AI. It's that nobody fixed their operational structure before the boom hit.

Hannah Garrett has 10 years across both sides of data center delivery - five on the GC side at H...

Bruno Caldas didn't take a traditional path into the world of billion-dollar projects - he started building computers at 14, earned a mechatronics engineering degree, and landed on a $20 billion iron ore project in the jungles of Guinea within two years of graduating. In this bonus segment, Bruno shares what he'd tell his younger self: get comfortable with discomfort, learn the tools that nobody else wants to learn, an...

Bruno Caldas has built dashboards on a laptop in the African jungle, trained 300 people on SAP, and is now building AI agent teams for one of the world's largest mining companies. The throughline across 18 years in the industry is always the same: the data foundation comes first.

Bruno Caldas is a project controls and business intelligence professional at Rio Tinto, sitting at the intersection of capital projects, finance, systems,...

Most project teams are exceptionally good at delivering a project the wrong way. Omer Iqbal has spent 20 years learning to fix that - from the portfolio level.

Omer Iqbal is Senior Portfolio Manager in the Investment PMO at Sydney Water, where he oversees a $30 billion capital program serving 6 million people. His career has run from site engineering on a $20M oil and gas job to board service, MBA, and portfolio leadership across s...

In this bonus segment, Iwona Wilson shares her advice for the next generation of project leaders. She makes the case for developing critical thinking above all else, explains how AI is reshaping the skills students need to stay relevant, and offers practical guidance on where to find the right experiences early in your career. Iwona also walks through her book, her decision gate training program, and where to connect with her onlin...

Every major capital project team will tell you they have a decision gate process. According to Iwona Wilson, having the process and having the capability to use it are two completely different things - and the gap between them is costing the industry hundreds of millions per project.

Iwona Wilson is co-founder and CEO of Wilson Biz Consulting and author of Where Projects Are Won or Lost: A Practical Guide to Early Decision Framing ...

Most major projects manage risk in Excel. Matt Mitchell spent a decade managing it differently - including as risk lead on a $3.9 billion offshore gas platform in the Mediterranean.

In this episode, Orion sits down with Matt Mitchell — a certified risk management professional with over a decade of experience across energy and industrial megaprojects — to go deep on one of the most underinvested disciplines in capital pr...

Before the panel started, the moderator was warned: "Good luck controlling this bunch." Four AACE presidents. 150+ combined years. They lived up to it. Recorded live at the 2026 AACE Houston Gulf Coast Symposium, host Orion Matthews sits down with four current and former AACE International Presidents for an unfiltered conversation on leadership, AI, remote work, and the future of project controls - drawing on decades of experience ...

The project controls industry has a looming problem—and it's not technical.

In this episode, Orion sits down with Christina Robinson — founder of Henry Porter LLC and project controls advisor with 14 years across energy, utilities, and infrastructure — to diagnose a crisis that most industry leaders are misreading. The problem isn't a skills shortage: it's a culture and systems problem that's causing younger profe...

Most project failures aren’t caused by a single issue - they’re the result of broken integration.

In this episode, Orion sits down with Ellie Moradinezhad, founder of tactHive Consulting and former Global Discipline Director at Hatch, where she oversaw project management development across 4,000+ projects in 70 countries - to unpack the most misunderstood concept in major project delivery: integration. Ellie introduces ...

Most project teams don’t fail because they lack a plan, they fail because they believe it.

In this episode, Orion sits down with Travis Arlitt, Senior Planning & Field Execution Specialist and co-founder of Day One Model, to unpack a fundamental gap in capital project delivery: the disconnect between planned schedules and field reality.

With over 25 years of experience across global megaprojects, from LNG facilities in An...

Capital projects generate enormous amounts of data, yet many important project decisions are still made without timely access to the information teams need. When plans inevitably break and conditions change, leaders often lack the transparency required to respond quickly and confidently. The issue is not a lack of data, but a gap between the systems collecting information and the tools teams use to make decisions. This presentation...

What does it really take to staff, structure, and control multi-billion-dollar programs?

Ahmed AbdelSalam shares hard-earned lessons on resource planning, building high-impact PMOs, and how AI is reshaping project controls.

In this episode of The Major Project Podcast, Orion sits down with Ahmed AbdelSalam, a senior PMO and project controls leader who has delivered multi-billion-dollar programs across life sciences, healthcare, and...

Risk isn’t a scary “extra” - it’s the reason projects succeed or spiral. ⚠️

Kim Essendrup, co-host of Project Management Happy Hour and founder of RAIDLOG.com, joins Orion for a practical Risk 101 breakdown - and how RAID logs help teams stay proactive instead of reactive.

In this episode of The Major Project Podcast, Orion sits down with Kim Essendrup - co-host of the widely followed Project Management Happ...

What if your 3D model could predict schedule risk, expose cost blind spots, and align everyone—from the field to the boardroom? 🧩

BIM and digital-delivery expert Omar Habib joins Orion to break down how 4D, 5D, and data-driven storytelling are transforming billion-dollar projects.

In this episode of The Major Project Podcast, Orion sits down with Omar Habib - Co-Founder & CTO of The WE Group and a glo...

Why do so many billion-dollar projects fail—and how can leaders make better decisions before it’s too late? 🧭

Global mega-project executive Akin Oni joins Orion to unpack decision-making, people, risk, and leadership at the highest stakes.

In this episode of The Major Project Podcast, Orion sits down with Akin Oni—global mega-project executive, CEO & Managing Partner of FECs Group, and aut...

Why do so many billion-dollar projects go off the rails—and what can you do before execution to prevent it? 🧭

Front-end planning expert Roger Farish joins Orion to unpack FEL, stage-gates, risk, and governance—and why the biggest influence on a project’s success happens long before you break ground.

In this episode of The Major Project Podcast, Orion sits down with...

What if finishing a billion-dollar project on time and on budget is actually a choice? 📦

Global AWP pioneer Geoff Ryan joins Orion to break down Advanced Work Packaging, data center megaprojects, and the future of construction productivity.

In this episode of The Major Project Podcast, Orion sits down with Geoff Ryan—worldwide authority on Advanced Work Packaging (AWP), founder of Insight-AWP, and author of Even More Schedul...