Summary

I am a Senior Teaching Fellow in Project Management and Course Leader for the Project Management Degree Apprenticeship at the University of Portsmouth.

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Member of the Association of Project Managers and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. I also hold the PRINCE2 Practitioner and Managing Successful Projects Practitioner qualifications for project management.

I have worked in higher education since 2002. I have held senior lecturing positions, successfully leading postgraduate programmes at the University of Hertfordshire (UH), University of Winchester and University of Surrey. In each case I successfully led and wrote project management documentation validations and conducted external programme accreditations with the Association of Project Management and the Tech Partnership.

Before that I gained over twenty years of industrial experience in the transport sector. I have developed skills in project management, people management, communication and leadership in a business environment from working in a range of diverse organisations on some of the largest and most innovative investment infrastructure projects in the UK. These were transport-based, Private Fnance Initiative/Public-Private Partnership (PFI/PPP) projects.

I have a proven track record of working at a strategic and tactical level within large organisations, where I have often been required to promote new initiatives internally and to consult with/advise senior stakeholders and board members.

I always aim, in my teaching and through sharing my knowledge, to provide our students with a transformational educational experience. I enjoy passing on my practical knowhow and showing students how to apply their learning in preparation for a successful career.

Biography

Prior to joining the University of Portsmouth in 2019 I was for 7 years Head of the Information Systems and Project Management Group at UH, where I successfully managed 24 staff. We delivered 2 Master’s programmes (MSc Project Management and MSc Global Business) and 3 undergraduate programmes: BSc (Hons) Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB) and BA International Business/International Management.

I have been an external examiner to the University of Plymouth and Plymouth University International College. I have been an external advisor for Master’s level programmes to the University of Westminster, University of Plymouth and University of Gloucester. I have also conducted partner approval at Weber State University in Salt Lake City.

Before working in higher education I spent many years in industry with organisations such as Balfour Beatty Capital Projects and London Underground, where my focus was on bid and project management in connection with major PFI/PPP infrastructure projects.

Research interests

My current research interests include: private finance initiative/public-private partnership policy to implementation, political risk, contractual models for delivering and financing public sector investment, business cases and investment decision making for projects. 

I have published 45 articles in journals, textbooks and for conferences, each with an emphasis on applied project management research. I have written many articles on PFI/PPP transport projects within the UK and have been published internationally. Some examples of my published work are:

Sandhawalia B and Gannon M (2019) Negotiation and Decision Making to Develop a Public-Private-Partnership: A Case-Based Approach, 19th International Conference on Group Decision and Negotiation, GDN 2019, Loughborough University, 11-15 June 2019.

Gannon M.J. (2016) London Underground's Public-Private-Partnership: Lessons to be Learned by the Public Sector, New Forms of Procurement: PPP and Relational Contracting in the 21st Century, edited by Marcus Jefferies and Steve Rowlinson, Routledge, Taylor and Francis.

Gannon M.J. and Banham G. (2011). Managing Knowledge in Construction Engineering Projects. OR Insight, Vol. 24, 1, pp. 17-30, April 2011.

Gannon M.J. and Smith N.J. (2011). An Effective Outline Business Case to Facilitate Successful Decision-making.  Construction, Management and Economics. Vol. 29, pp. 185-197, February 2011.

Smith N.J and Gannon M.J. (2008). Treatment of Political Risk in Light Rail Transit PPP Projects.  Invited Paper. Journal of Management, Procurement and Law, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Special Edition PFI/PPP Past and Present, Issue MP4, pp. 179-185 November 2008.

Teaching responsibilities

My teaching responsibilities include teaching on the MSc Project Management modules People, Risk Management, and Budget and Commercial Management. I also teach on the module for the Association for Project Management’s qualification on the BSc Project Manager Degree Apprenticeship (Project Management) course.