2008 Program

Opening Speech
Paul B. Bell, Jr., Dean College of Arts and Sciences and Vice Provost for Instruction
University of Oklahoma – Norman, OK
Paul Bell is in his 11th year as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, where he also serves as Vice Provost for Instruction. He is a cell biologist with an A.B. in Biology from Washington University, St. Louis, and a Ph.D. in Biology from Yale University. Prior to joining the faculty of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oklahoma in 1979, he was a Post-doctoral Fellow at Uppsala University in Sweden and at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He also taught for three years at UCLA as an adjunct assistant professor. At OU, before becoming dean, Dean Bell served as a Faculty Administrative Fellow in the Provost Office, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education and Programs, and Associate Provost. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Linköping University in Sweden, where he taught and carried out research over a 14 year period. Paul currently serves on the state-wide Council on Instruction of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, on the boards of the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, the Sutton Avian Research Center, and the OU Confucius Institute. He is also a member of the International Commission of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. He is actively involved in promoting the globalization of the university and the international exchange of faculty and students. He is fluent in Swedish and French, speaks Spanish, reads Norwegian and Danish and is currently studying Chinese.

Keynote Speaker
Ken Lackey, NORDAM Group
Ken Lackey is the Chairman and CEO of the NORDAM Group.  Prior to joining NORDAM, Mr. Lackey served as President of The University of Oklahoma, Tulsa and Senior Vice President of the OU System from July 1999 to July 2001 and was a member of Governor Frank Keating's administration serving as his Chief of Staff from February 1997 to July 1999.  From 1995 to 1997, he served as the Oklahoma Cabinet Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Before his service in state government, Mr. Lackey held the position of President of Flint Industries, a privately-owned, international company with interests in oil and gas services, manufacturing and commercial construction.  Earlier, he held management positions with Skelly Oil (NYSE) and Kin-Ark Corporation (ASE).  He serves as a Director and Chairman of the Compensation Committee for Matrix Services Company (NASD), an Advisory Director for Commerce Bankshares, a Director of the Community Hospitals Authority, a Director of the Tulsa Community College Foundation, and as a Director and member of the Audit Committee for AAON, Inc. (NASD)

Special Workshop: Managing Knowledge Using the Tools and Techniques of Project Management
Lee R. Lambert, Founder of PMP
This four hour workshop will demonstrate the potential power of the project management tools/techniques when used in creating, retaining and managing knowledge regardless of the type projects in which you are currently involved. You will learn simple, yet insightful, ways to organize, staff and execute your projects to assure that you achieve your personal and organizational objectives. Along the way to success you will learn how to create, retain and meticulously manage vital knowledge that will fuel a fire of continuing improvement on your future projects and the future projects of others. You will learn how to potentially eliminate mistakes from the past thus allowing you to constantly stay clearly and constantly focused on the exciting challenges of the future. Through a delicate weaving of lecture, hands on exercises and humorous real-world experiences the student will leave this workshop with a newly found perspective of the combined power of project and knowledge management.

Project Duration Forecasting ...a comparison of EVM methods to Earned Schedule
Walt Lipke, Creator of Earned Schedule
Earned Value Management (EVM) methods for forecasting project duration have been taught in training courses and used by project managers for four decades. These EVM methods are generally considered to be accepted practice, yet they have not been well studied and researched as to their predictive capability. Using real project data, this paper examines and compares the duration forecasts from four EVM methods to the Earned Schedule prediction technique.