PMI UK London Branch Event: Project Management Panel: Practitioner Insights. 26th November 2025
This event will be taking place at York St. John University, London Campus, (Room: 6th Floor Social Area) 6th Floor Export Building, 1 Clove Crescent, East India, London E14 2BA
Are you new to project management or would you like to gain insights from tried-and-true professionals?
This panel will bring together Project Managers from diverse industries to share real-world experiences – how they’ve navigated challenging stakeholders, secured leadership support, and delivered measurable value. Please join our interactive session, with both guided questions and audience participation.
Our panelists include the following experienced PMs:
Dr. Nicholas Lambrou has been an educator all his life who stumbled into project management through IT. He is now an Emeritus Fellow of the University of Westminster. Among others, he has managed responsible projects to set up universities in the Sultanate of Oman, India and Uzbekistan, which, needless to say, were not all successful, but they were all worth it. He is an ambassador of the Responsible Project Management movement.
Des McGuckian is currently the IT Project & Product Governance Manager at BDO UK, bringing over two decades of experience across the transport, defence, and public sectors. He has led multi million pound complex IT infrastructure and application projects using both agile and waterfall methodologies, with a strong focus on governance, stakeholder engagement, and innovation. Prior to BDO, Des held senior roles at Transport for London and over 20 years in the British Army, where he delivered strategic IT and intelligence systems projects. His career is defined by bridging the gap between technology and business to drive operational performance.
Nicholas Garwolinski is a seasoned Project Manager specializing in the built environment sector. With over two decades of experience, he has led multi-million-pound projects across residential, educational, and healthcare sectors in London. Currently, with Lexica, a member of WSP, he manages complex laboratory projects in occupied and complex operational settings. Nicholas has worked with esteemed clients such as the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and King’s College London. He enjoys helping organizations achieve their built environment goals while identifying opportunities throughout the project lifecycle.
Vincent Varghese is a Senior Program & Project Manager with 20+ years of experience leading complex IT infrastructure, software deployment, digital transformations and cloud migration projects. He demonstrates strong leadership in strategic program delivery, stakeholder engagement, and change management, with expertise across Agile, Scrum, and Waterfall methodologies. He currently works as a project manager with Colart International Holding, leading enterprise-level transformation programs, preparing project roadmaps, implementing governance frameworks, risk tracking, stakeholder alignment and mentoring PMs.
Karen Bashford has been a project manager and change practitioner for over 25 years, in both Local Government and Financial Services. She is currently an independent board director for the London Women’s forum, a not-for-profit DEI Group and a housing developer. Previously she was Legal & General Capital’s (LGC) Chief Operating Officer and has always been passionate about ESG and sustainable investing. Before joining LGC, Karen worked across Asset Management, Investment Banking and in the Public Sector with her last role being Head of Enterprise Change at Schroders.
Agenda
- 6:00 pm Venue open, refreshments and networking
- 6:30 pm Introduction and Presentation
- 7:30 pm Q&A Session and wrap up
- 8:00 pm Close