As a computer science grad, I started my career as a software developer, however within a few years I realized that I seemed to have a knack at organizing the software development and testing effort to ensure that the solution being developed ran as expected and was what the end-user actually needed.

My initiation into my first leadership role was a complete surprise – I was promoted to management when my manager and my manager’s manager decided to leave the firm at the same time – I went from being an individual contributor to a manager of a team responsible for a mission-critical trading and reporting system in the space of a couple of days! Looking back, I can see that while I figured it out over time through trial and error, I could have used help to develop the necessary project management, team leadership and communication skills to be successful.

In 2006, after many years of delivering mission-critical complex systems for global financial institutions, I moved to Vermont and I later launched my consulting company, Newgrange IT Consulting. I now enjoy helping clients transform their business through effective strategy, project planning and execution. I focus on ensuring that the value proposition for each project is aligned with the client’s mission, and balance risk and results throughout the project. I call myself a pragmatic project manager and am frequently heard to say that “I don’t believe in process for the sake of process”.

I have a B.S. in Applied Computing, from University of Ulster, Ireland and a Project Management Professional (PMP) accreditation from the Project Management Institute (PMI).