Honorary Award for Director-General

Citation for Honorary Degree, delivered by Professor Sebastian Green, UCC

Mr Ed Naughton, BE, CEng. FIEI, IPMA-A, PMP, is a graduate of University College Dublin where he read for a BE (Civil). He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers of Ireland; a Chartered Engineer (Ireland); a Professional Engineer in Canada (Province of British Columbia); holds the highest level of certification from the International Project Management Association; and was the first PMP (Project Management Professional) in Ireland from the USA-based Project Management Institute.

In 1989, he founded the Institute of Project Management (IPM) to develop and further the discipline of project management in Ireland. The IPM is now the leading authority on the profession in Ireland, and Ed continues as its Director-General.

He has researched, published and presented many articles and papers on the continuously evolving state of project management. He is the author of the Irish Project Management Competence Baseline, is the former editor of the quarterly international publication “Project Management Practice”, and contributes monthly to the electronic journal PMWorld Today.

During his forty-year career, he has worked as a project manager and/or project management consultant on many high-profile domestic and international assignments.

The first 10 years of his professional career were spent working on multi-million dollar projects in Canada, Iran, Nigeria and Ireland. He was the chief cost engineer on the £630m (circa €5.0b in today’s values) Aughinish Alumina Plant construction before moving back to Dublin to work on converting Dublin city to natural gas.

The next 15 years were largely spent on applying the project management discipline in the business arena to the downsizing and rationalization of companies such as Dublin Gas, An Post, Waterford Crystal, Wedgewood, Bus Átha Cliath, Independent Newspapers and Bus Éireann.

On the international front, Ed was responsible for initiating cooperation agreements with both the PMI (Project Management Institute) USA and the IPMA (International Project Management Association). In addition, heIn addition, heIn addition, he is Ireland’s representative on the council of delegates and a former Vice President-Marketing for the IPMA.  

The IPMA is a global federation of 53 national project management societies and a worldwide professional association with more than 150,000 certified professionals. Its outputs include a globally recognized certification program, global standards and the active promotion of the project management profession in both the business and government sectors.  The Institute has been responsible for the accreditation of almost 2,500 IPMA professionals within this certification system since first introducing it to Ireland in 2002.

He initiated and has maintained a long and fruitful association with the Department of Management and Marketing at UCC that stretches back over 20 years. The ensuing collaboration has led to the design and delivery of best-in-class project management development programmes, executive education and CPD workshops offered on a national basis. In addition, IPMI has funded ongoing research initiatives between the IPMI and UCC, such as the annual national benchmarking study of project managers. The association with UCC has led to the provision of project management programmes that bridge the boundaries between town and gown have blended the best from academe and business. Ed's huge energy and commitment to project management training and professional development have enabled the Dept. of Management and Marketing to be at the forefront today of project management education in Ireland.