Instructors

Hamid Faridani

Dr. Hamid Faridani is a Senior Training and Consulting Associate with Procept Associates Ltd. His experience is in managing information technology projects, spending 23 years managing projects for IBM Canada. He led the development of IBM products at the IBM Toronto Lab. As part of IBM Global Services, Hamid delivered projects across insurance, banking, retail and government sectors. He specialized in consulting on troubled engagements, ensuring success of large, high risk projects, establishing trusted customer relationships and ensuring high client satisfaction. As Service Delivery Manager he was responsible for all aspects of software testing engagement including pricing and contract negotiations, project staffing, delivery management and engagement completion. Hamid provided project management leadership to the IBM PM community and was dedicated to helping develop the profession and mentoring other project managers in their career and professional goals.

As an IBM Risk Manager, he was responsible for ensuring that a large portfolio of IT engagements were following documented solution delivery process steps. Hamid ensured that any potential exposures to successful proposal and delivery were identified and addressed. He identified risk areas and recommended workable containment plans, reviewed project plans and recommended changes in plans and resourcing to cover any omissions. He ensured that the scope and responsibilities were well-defined and documented. Hamid mentored other project managers in managing complex, high risk engagements. He also performed PM reviews as part of consulting engagement for external customers.

Hamid holds a PhD in electrical engineering from University of California. Prior to joining IBM, he spent over 10 years as an academic, teaching and conducting research at electrical engineering departments at universities in US, Iran and Canada. His last academic position was Associate Professor at University of Windsor.

Hamid is one of the founders of the first Systems Engineering departments in Iran. As department head, he led the establishment of the department, development of the curriculum and the hiring of faculty members.

Hamid started teaching project management (PM) courses as part of IBM Global Campus and later he joined PM certificate programs at University of Toronto and Ryerson University. After retiring from IBM, Hamid expanded his work at U of T and Ryerson, developing a number of new courses and conducting workshops for corporate customers. Hamid has been a frequent presenter at Project Management Institute chapter meetings. He has published over thirty papers in international journals and has refereed conferences on systems engineering, risk management, estimation and control theory.

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Amber Howard

Amber Howard has over 15 years of experience in the technology and business fields. Her extensive consulting experience has allowed Amber to perform business analysis, project management and organizational change management for companies of various sizes in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. This experience includes engagements in the aviation, cooperative housing, finance, government, retail, risk management, and construction industries.

Amber holds a Certified Business Analyst Professional (CBAP^®) designation from the International Institute of Business Analyst, a Change Management Practitioner™ (CMP) designation from APMG International, a Project Management Professional (PMP^®) designation from the Project Management Institute (PMI), is a Certified Coach Practitioner™ through the Certified Coaches Federation, and is a Certified Personal Resilience Practitioner through Resilience Alliance. Amber holds an Honours BA in Bioethics and Political Science from the University of Toronto.

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Janice Petley

Janice Petley has over 20 years of project management experience. Her typical assignments are definitely project management, but are anything but "typical". Her experience spans a wide range of projects: from classical theatre at the Stratford Festival and symphony concerts in the United States, to stadium and arena opera productions in cities such as Tokyo, Munich, and Brussels. Whether it was a large sporting event at the Rogers Centre or an opera with a cast of 1000 in a bull ring in Madrid, Janice has worked on high risk, innovative, challenging projects. As many of her events were broadcast live-to-air both nationally and internationally, she fully understands the necessity of flawless project execution.

Janice has extensive experience with projects whose core deliverables focused on marketing, corporate communications, employee rewards, team building, and training and education. She has managed projects for many high profile corporate clients including CIBC, Chrysler Canada, Telus, and BMW. The not-for-profit client list includes the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Canada Games, and Special Olympics International.

She holds a BA from the University of Western Ontario, a BEd from Queen’s University, an MBA, and is designated as a Project Management Professional and a Certified Agile Project Manager.

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Braden Johnson

Braden Johnson's experience comes from working as a Building Science Technical Consultant and Project Manager. In the capacity of an Employee or Consultant he has worked for a range of institutional clients which include York Region, Ryerson University, Brock University, Peel Region, York University, University of Toronto (Scarborough Campus), Toronto Transit Commission, as well as various Corporate Condominium and Commercial building owners throughout Canada, Caribbean and Asia.

Working as a Project Manager in a University Institution Braden has the unique experience of knowing the construction and financial constraints that Universities must work within. Within these constraints and challenges he has extensive experience solving the many problems involved with implementing large scale capital projects from concept to completion.

Typical tasks which Braden has been responsible for successfully delivering include: the planning of complex work scope; selecting qualified consultant teams through competitive RFSQ, RFP and / RFQ procurement; engaging construction teams in various CCDC construction contract types, facilitating the construction phases of work; completing commissioning; closing out building permits and managing operational readiness for the newly constructed space prior to occupancy.

Braden is a Certified Engineering Technologist (C.E.T), Project Management Professional (PMP) and has a Masters in Building Science (MBSc). He has developed College Course programs in Building Science and Construction Project Control and continues to teach part time at George Brown College Continuing Education as a way to keep up to date and engaged with best practices in the construction industry. He is also an active member of the Canadian Armed Forces currently serving in the capacity of an Officer with 32 Brigade Combat Engineer Regiment.

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