Project goals for 2026, with APM’s Project Professional of the Year 2025

Wayne George ChPP is the winner of APM’s 2025 Project Professional of the Year Award. He is Strategy Director, Place and Assurance, at Local Partnerships LLP. 
Below, he shares his goals for 2026, his biggest career lessons and what makes for a great project manager.

Q: Please could you give us an outline of your current role?

Wayne George ChPP (WG): I’m a Project Director at Local Partnerships LLP, which is jointly owned by HM Treasury, the Local Government Association and the Welsh Government. I directly support and advise public-sector bodies – local authorities, combined authorities, central government departments, sub-national transport bodies – across England and Wales on infrastructure and assurance projects. I advise on infrastructure projects and lead assurance reviews. I joined Local Partnerships in October 2023 from National Highways.

Q: Congratulations on your APM Award win! What lessons did you learn from the project you included in your award entry?

WG: Thank you. My entry focused on the first project I managed at Local Partnerships, a project looking at data gaps in connected and automated mobility, commissioned by the Department for Transport and the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. Key challenges and lessons included managing the project against a changing legislative backdrop (the Automated Vehicles Bill was progressing through Parliament), distilling findings from a diverse range of public and private stakeholders, ensuring tangible and prioritised data gaps were captured, and applying systems thinking approaches at critical points throughout the project to ensure adequate challenge and review. A principal lesson is to look more broadly at how other sectors have dealt with similar challenges – for example, in the aviation and maritime sectors.

Q: What career goals do you have for 2026?

WG: Local Partnerships has a clear five-year growth plan to address capacity and capability requirements across the sector, and 2026 will see our total number of staff exceed 100. There is significant attention on infrastructure at present, and I only see this increasing in 2026. I’m looking forward to continuing to advise on infrastructure projects led by local authorities and combined authorities to secure further public-sector investment for infrastructure projects, while leading further assurance reviews to address delivery confidence and accelerate progress.

Q: What lessons have you learnt about using data well?

WG: Data needs to be seen as an asset in its own right. It has value. For me, the crucial lesson is that all stakeholders in a project environment will have varying degrees of comfort and confidence in sharing data. Any stakeholder-mapping exercise needs to be cognisant of this at the start of a project. Broadly categorising the data hoarders, data spectators, data supporters and data experimenters can be helpful in understanding the volume of data held by stakeholders and their level of preparedness to exchange data.

Q: How important are data literacy skills for project professionals in 2026?

WG: They are highly important, but you don’t need to be a data scientist or an AI expert. At any stage in your career, familiarising yourself with key data subjects via free online resources can make you more confident when dealing with a technical audience. When leading the data discovery project, I found APM’s online resources on systems thinking very helpful, and I supplemented this by reading reports from the Government Office for Science and the Open Data Institute.

Q: What makes for a great project manager?

WG: A consistent and proportionate ‘grip’ of the project and a full understanding of its parameters. If someone demonstrates those characteristics, then trust, teamwork, ownership and respect tend to happen indirectly, because they see and feel the passion demonstrated by the project manager.

Q: And what about a great project leader?

WG: This is where the distinction between project manager and project sponsor needs to be clear. A great project leader, or project sponsor from my experience, is someone who ultimately guards the value of the project (not just the financial value, but the wider benefits) and leaves the management and delivery to the project manager. Unfortunately, the role of sponsor and its distinction with project manager is unclear, and that can often be the source of delivery challenges during a project’s life cycle.

Q: What do you enjoy about working in project management?

WG: I’ve always enjoyed the rigour behind project management. In my current role, I particularly enjoy co-designing how the project will be delivered and reviewed (project methodology). No plan is perfect, but those early stages in a project are critical to understand requirements beyond the brief, build trust and ultimately deliver.  
If I’m commissioning or delivering a project, I always ask myself: is the project team diverse or are the same people being considered? Are different perspectives, voices and backgrounds being brought to the table, and are there suitable opportunities for younger professionals to experience project successes and challenges? 
In previous roles, as a Chartered Town Planner, I have delivered land assembly, housing and regeneration schemes, and town centre consultation projects. Those roles required good project management, which I probably didn’t recognise I was delivering at the time; nor was I aware there was a professional route to validate those skills.

Q: What have been your biggest career lessons to date?

WG: However big, complex or overwhelming a project can seem, at any stage, it can be broken down into manageable areas where you have influence and control to take action, delegate and move forward. Attending the APM Project Management Awards 2025 demonstrated the diversity of success across the project management sector; as project professionals, we should put ourselves, our projects and our project teams forward to showcase success.

Q: What do you think the future holds for project management?

WG: It’s great to see the variety of pathways emerging to obtain chartership. Having secured Chartered Project Professional status in 2023, I welcomed the alternative route for professionals who are able to demonstrate valid experience. The value placed on project management skills will continue to increase, and I see more and more public-sector organisations placing value on ChPP status.    

 

You may also be interested in:

• To find out the other award winners, visit our events page
• Find out more on how to become a Chartered Project Professional
• Upskill your data literacy through the APM Learning platform