The project profession remaining relevant
in an ever-changing world
Interview with Alistair Godbold
Vice President, Former Director, Fellow
Association for Project Management
Former Director, Major Projects Association
HonFellow, International Project Management Association
United Kingdom
Interviewed by Yasmina Khelifi
International Correspondent, PM World Journal
Paris, France
Introduction to the interviewee
Alistair Godbold is an experienced programme director with over 30 years’ experience, managing and advising companies on the set up, operation and governance of complex major projects and programmes. He has advised on, set up and led the transformation of organisations to improve the delivery of major projects and programmes. He has delivered and worked on projects ranging from construction through IT enabled business transformations to high integrity systems and advised government, defence, rail, nuclear, aviation and mining projects in the UK and abroad.
He has also served as a director of the APM and the Major Projects Association. He is a Fellow of the APM, a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the International Centre for Complex Project Management and a member of their board. As a member of the governance group for Project 13 he published the Infrastructure Governance code. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Project Professional, in 2011 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the APM for his services to project management. Alistair is also an honorary Fellow of the International Project Management Association, was also a member of their council and chaired their Advisory Committee.
Interview
Q1: First, thank you for accepting an interview request from PMWJ. You have been appointed APM Vice President. Congratulations. What do you envisage for APM?
Alistair Godbold (Godbold): APM is leading the way in so many areas of the project profession. It embraces and supports all of the different parts of the profession and constantly strives to move the art and science of the profession on. With its mission to make projects successful so society benefits it has a very worthwhile mission everyone can subscribe to.
For me, the next stage on the journey is to support the profession and the successful delivery of projects not only in the UK, but all over the world. We also need to expand out of our traditional comfort zone into new industries and areas and bring the benefit of successfully delivered projects to all. To do all of this we need to make ourselves relevant to in an international context and to new industries. We need to alter the language we use and the way we talk about the profession so that it means something in this different context and not just talk about it in the way we always have done and assume it will mean the same in these new areas.
Q2: APM is a UK project association. What are the most critical trends for project management in the UK in the coming years?
More…
To read entire interview, click here
How to cite this interview: Khelifi, Y. (2025). The project profession remaining relevant in an ever-changing world, Interview with Alistair Godbold; PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue III, March. Available online at http://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pmwj150-Mar2025-Khelifi-Interview-with-Alistair-Godbold.pdf
About the Interviewer
Yasmina Khelifi
Paris, France
Yasmina Khelifi, PMP, PMI- ACP, PMI-PBA is an experienced project manager in the telecom industry. Along with her 20-year career at Orange S.A. (the large French multinational telecommunications corporation), she sharpened her global leadership skills, delivering projects with major manufacturers and SIM makers. Yasmina strives for building collaborative bridges between people to make international projects successful. She relies on three pillars: project management skills, the languages she speaks, and a passion for sharing knowledge.
She is a PMP certification holder since 2013, a PMI- ACP and PMI-PBA certification holder since 2020. She is an active volunteer member at PMI France and PMI UAE, and a member of PMI Germany Chapter. French-native, she can speak German, English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and she is learning Arabic. Yasmina loves sharing her knowledge and experiences at work, in her volunteers’ activities at PMI, and in projectmanagement.com as a regular blogger. She is also the host and co-founder of the podcast Global Leaders Talk with Yasmina Khelifi to help people in becoming better international leaders.
Yasmina can be contacted at https://yasminakhelifi.com/ or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasminakhelifi-pmp-telecom/
Visit her correspondent profile at https://pmworldlibrary.net/yasmina-khelifi/
To view other works by Yasmina, visit her author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/yasmina-khelifi/
