Top 16 Project Management Speakers to Book in 2026
Project management speakers shift how your team thinks about delivery, accountability, and execution. I've handpicked speakers you can book and learn from who bring real frameworks, hard-won lessons, and insights your team can actually use.
Top 16 Project Management Speakers
Below are the profiles of the top project management speakers, covering who they are and the impact they’ve made in this space.
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez is CEO of Projects & Company, a former PMI chairman, and author of the Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook and Powered by Projects, focused on execution.
His work argues…
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez is CEO of Projects & Company, a former PMI chairman, and author of the Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook and Powered by Projects, focused on execution.
His work argues that projects are becoming the engine of organizational change. Through the Project Canvas, his writing on prioritization, and his project-driven organization model, he gives leaders practical ways to select, sponsor, structure, and deliver strategic initiatives.
Ricardo Viana Vargas
Ricardo Viana Vargas is an author, advisor, educator, and project leader whose three-decade career spans global initiatives, capital projects, transformation, crisis management, and AI.
Vargas has directed major initiatives across industries and…
Ricardo Viana Vargas is an author, advisor, educator, and project leader whose three-decade career spans global initiatives, capital projects, transformation, crisis management, and AI.
Vargas has directed major initiatives across industries and built a substantial teaching and speaking practice around turning ideas into action. His work also explores how AI is reshaping project management, giving project professionals a perspective that connects emerging technology with real-world delivery.
Laura Barnard
Laura Barnard founded and leads PMO Strategies, where she develops PMO and strategy-delivery leaders. She created the IMPACT Engine System, wrote The IMPACT Engine, and hosts its podcast.
Barnard pushes PMOs and…
Laura Barnard founded and leads PMO Strategies, where she develops PMO and strategy-delivery leaders. She created the IMPACT Engine System, wrote The IMPACT Engine, and hosts its podcast.
Barnard pushes PMOs and project teams to look beyond schedules, budgets, and activity and show measurable business value. Her IMPACT Engine work connects governance, executive relationships, strategy execution, and outcomes, giving project leaders a practical framework for becoming stronger strategic partners.
Peter Taylor
Peter Taylor is a veteran PMO leader, keynote speaker, and bestselling project management author known for The Lazy Project Manager and Leading Successful PMOs, with a long executive career.
Taylor’s “productive laziness”…
Peter Taylor is a veteran PMO leader, keynote speaker, and bestselling project management author known for The Lazy Project Manager and Leading Successful PMOs, with a long executive career.
Taylor’s “productive laziness” philosophy emphasizes working smarter and concentrating effort where it creates the most value. His recent work examines AI-enabled project communication, automation, governance, and decision-making, extending a career spent building and leading global PMOs.
Susanne Madsen
Susanne Madsen is an executive coach, author, and trainer specializing in leadership for complex projects. She co-founded the Project Leadership Institute and wrote The Power of Project Leadership.
Madsen helps project managers…
Susanne Madsen is an executive coach, author, and trainer specializing in leadership for complex projects. She co-founded the Project Leadership Institute and wrote The Power of Project Leadership.
Madsen helps project managers move beyond process expertise and strengthen the human side of delivery. Drawing on decades of major change-program experience, her coaching and speaking center on self-awareness, emotional intelligence, confidence, pressure, and leading global teams through complexity.
Bill Dow
Bill Dow is a PMO director, author, educator, and longtime project management practitioner. He has built and led numerous PMOs and written practical books on PMO operations and communication.
Dow approaches PMO…
Bill Dow is a PMO director, author, educator, and longtime project management practitioner. He has built and led numerous PMOs and written practical books on PMO operations and communication.
Dow approaches PMO leadership from the practitioner’s seat, covering how offices are built, staffed, measured, operated, and eventually closed. His books, training, speaking, and mentoring translate years of hands-on PMO experience into practical guidance for project and portfolio leaders.
Bent Flyvbjerg
Bent Flyvbjerg is a professor and leading scholar of major programme and megaproject management. His research examines why large projects fail and how leaders can improve forecasting and delivery.
Flyvbjerg’s research has…
Bent Flyvbjerg is a professor and leading scholar of major programme and megaproject management. His research examines why large projects fail and how leaders can improve forecasting and delivery.
Flyvbjerg’s research has exposed recurring problems such as optimism bias, the planning fallacy, and strategic misrepresentation in major projects. His work on reference class forecasting and How Big Things Get Done turns evidence from large initiatives into lessons for planning, risk, and execution.
Brett Harned
Brett Harned is a project management coach, consultant, speaker, and author of Project Management for Humans. He founded the Digital PM Summit and has spent two decades in delivery leadership.
Harned puts…
Brett Harned is a project management coach, consultant, speaker, and author of Project Management for Humans. He founded the Digital PM Summit and has spent two decades in delivery leadership.
Harned puts people at the center of project delivery. His consulting, coaching, and speaking tackle communication gaps, unrealistic planning, operational bottlenecks, and team health, giving project managers a practical approach to leading work without hiding behind process or frameworks.
David Hillson
David Hillson, known as the Risk Doctor, is an author, speaker, and longtime risk management thought leader whose consulting career brought practical risk guidance to clients across many sectors.
Hillson has spent…
David Hillson, known as the Risk Doctor, is an author, speaker, and longtime risk management thought leader whose consulting career brought practical risk guidance to clients across many sectors.
Hillson has spent his career making uncertainty easier to understand and manage. His contributions span opportunity management, risk attitudes, risk appetite, risk culture, and scalable project-risk methods, combining new ideas with practical techniques project leaders can apply to decisions and delivery.
Alan Mallory
Alan Mallory is a keynote speaker, author, performance coach, professional engineer, and project manager who connects disciplined delivery with lessons from high-stakes expeditions and leadership.
Mallory combines the technical side of project…
Alan Mallory is a keynote speaker, author, performance coach, professional engineer, and project manager who connects disciplined delivery with lessons from high-stakes expeditions and leadership.
Mallory combines the technical side of project management—scope, schedules, budgets, risks, and critical paths—with the human demands of trust, communication, resilience, and adaptability. His expedition stories give audiences a vivid way to explore how teams keep moving when conditions change.
Colin D. Ellis
Colin D. Ellis is a workplace culture expert, consultant, author, and award-winning speaker. After three decades leading teams and change, he built a practice focused on high-performance cultures.
Ellis brings a project…
Colin D. Ellis is a workplace culture expert, consultant, author, and award-winning speaker. After three decades leading teams and change, he built a practice focused on high-performance cultures.
Ellis brings a project leader’s experience to the challenge of building teams and cultures that actually work. As the author of The Project Book and creator of the Culture Dial framework, he connects delivery with leadership, behavior, belonging, and the cultural conditions teams need to perform.
Gregg Brown
Gregg Brown is a change leadership speaker, consultant, and author who draws on organizational psychology and decades of experience helping leaders and teams navigate uncertainty and transformation.
Brown’s work focuses on making…
Gregg Brown is a change leadership speaker, consultant, and author who draws on organizational psychology and decades of experience helping leaders and teams navigate uncertainty and transformation.
Brown’s work focuses on making organizations and teams more change-ready rather than simply reacting to disruption. His keynotes and consulting connect resilience, leadership capability, organizational culture, and AI adoption—useful territory for project leaders responsible for turning change into action.
Laurel Sim
Laurel Sim is Managing Partner and President of Taleo, a project services and consulting firm. Her career has progressed from project and program management to executive portfolio leadership.
Sim brings a portfolio-level…
Laurel Sim is Managing Partner and President of Taleo, a project services and consulting firm. Her career has progressed from project and program management to executive portfolio leadership.
Sim brings a portfolio-level view of project delivery shaped by years in management consulting and project services. Her path from project manager to program manager and executive leader gives speaking audiences a perspective on connecting individual initiatives with broader business priorities.
Asya Watkins
Asya Watkins is founder and CEO of Women Of Project Management, an author, speaker, and advisor with more than two decades of leadership experience across project management and business.
Watkins built Women…
Asya Watkins is founder and CEO of Women Of Project Management, an author, speaker, and advisor with more than two decades of leadership experience across project management and business.
Watkins built Women Of Project Management to expand community, development, visibility, and opportunity for Black women in the profession. Through keynotes, education, advocacy, and The Little Black Book Of Project Management Advice, she blends practical career guidance with a broader conversation about leadership and inclusion.
Eric Kimberling
Eric Kimberling is founder and CEO of Third Stage Consulting Group, an independent advisory firm focused on ERP and digital transformation, with two decades guiding complex enterprise initiatives.
Kimberling examines why large…
Eric Kimberling is founder and CEO of Third Stage Consulting Group, an independent advisory firm focused on ERP and digital transformation, with two decades guiding complex enterprise initiatives.
Kimberling examines why large technology transformations succeed or fail, covering ERP selection, implementation quality, organizational change, operating models, and project risk. His writing and speaking give project leaders an independent perspective on navigating complex enterprise transformations.
Gary Wagner
Gary Wagner is VP Program Management at PokerLab, where he leads cross-functional delivery teams building and scaling its Poker-as-a-Service platform for regulated markets in North America and beyond.
Wagner brings software delivery…
Gary Wagner is VP Program Management at PokerLab, where he leads cross-functional delivery teams building and scaling its Poker-as-a-Service platform for regulated markets in North America and beyond.
Wagner brings software delivery and product leadership together through Lean, Agile, and Product Operating Model principles. His work centers on collaborative, iterative delivery and customer value, giving him a practitioner perspective on coordinating complex digital programs across functions.
Selection Methodology
I selected the leaders on this list based on their relevance, demonstrated expertise and impact, professional credibility, and ongoing contributions to the field.
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I look for evidence such as leading meaningful initiatives or delivering notable results within their organizations, developing influential ideas or practices, publishing research or educational resources, speaking or teaching, and other contributions that demonstrate impact within their work or the broader field.
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