Emeka Umeche

I am a Project Manager in the built environment with over 10 years experience successfully leading projects to derive outcomes for clients. My original background in Civil Engineering equips me with strong problem solving skills as well as an analytical approach to dealing with challenges. Added to this, I have worked on a variety of projects in various sectors of the built environment including engineering asset management, mining, construction and consulting.

This has increased my knowledge base and provides me with an integrated view of scoping engineering projects.

The combination of my professional experience in project management (which ensures I have up to date skills as well as tools and techniques), my engineering background (which provides me with a fundamental analytical approach to problem solving) and varied work experience working in various sectors of the built environment (which increases my knowledge of the sector and provides me with an integrated view to project scoping) makes me an ideal candidate for the digital age built environment. This is because current and future clients (and projects) will require professionals with diverse skillsets who are flexible enough to work across various workstreams.

Project Manager – Ntiyiso Consulting 2021 - Present

Assigned to work as Project Manager on catalytic projects primarily for public sector clients including developing business cases for infrastructure works, developing strategies to unlock funds for public sector projects, and overseeing the execution of transaction advisory projects. Key activities include:

• Developing project plans with clear blueprints for implementation 
• Development of key project documentation and facilitating presentations to senior management and municipal council 
• Developing dashboards to track project performance and sub-contractors performance in terms of alignment to KPIs
• Facilitating workshops with clients on utilizing design thinking approach to deliver solutions
• Undertaking research and benchmarking studies on best practice to ensure quality of project output is aligned with best practice and achieves clients preferred outcome
• Facilitate benchmark visits to similar service providers and identifying innovative ways of working to improve service delivery
• Providing technical input in Engineering works and feasibility study.
• Developing innovative solutions to infrastructure shortages at municipal, provincial and national levels.
• Writing thought leadership articles for publications in digital and print media

Project Engineer – Combined Systems Assetx 2018 – 2020 

Assigned to work on engineering asset management projects for municipalities in South Africa, including Govan Mbeki and Nkomazi municipalities as well as TVET colleges in Limpopo.

• Physical conditional assessment and verification of electrical, water, roads, storm-water, buildings, and sanitation assets and logging positions onto ArcGIS.
• Unbundling of infrastructure projects on MS Excel to be input in the Fixed Asset register, in line with GRAP17.
• Undertaking industry analysis to ensure report structures and indices used are aligned with best practice and GRAP
• Planning and managing personnel and team resources using Project Management software such as ASANA, InstaGantt and Meeting King to produce relevant project dashboards and track performance
• Developing strategies to support client in sustainably managing their infrastructure assets
• Utilising systems to automate tracking of asset management practice in the municipality and support automated reporting

Project Manager – Torano Investment 2016 – 2018

• Working as a Project Manager for mining, construction and engineering consulting projects. Ensuring compliance with national standards and/or with instruction from relevant body.
• Determination of project objectives and measures of success which will be used to evaluate project effectiveness.
• Overseeing strategic planning of the companies, which involved making decisions on new contracts, flow charts, updating contract execution status and brainstorming with divisional heads of the companies.
• Undertaking industry analysis to ensure business strategy is aligned with market trends
• Preparation of master programmes for interrelated projects, subsequently reviewing and updating said programmes whenever needed. 
• Developing project schedule and utilizing PMBOK tools and techniques to ensure success in achieving schedule objectives.
• Developing project plans which identify and sequence the activities and timelines needed to successfully complete the project. Identification and assignment of resources and stakeholders required for the execution of the project.
• Monitoring and evaluation of implementation and delivery of the project plan in line with project scope, cost and time parameters of the project.
• Identification of risks, and collaboration with stakeholders to mitigate the risks. 
• Identification of initiatives to address project shortcomings and areas of concern.
• Developing contracts for sub-contracts and ensuring the right contract type was selected. Also ensuring sub-contractors adhered to contracts by utilizing penalties as agreed in contract. Construction contract types used include JBCC.
• Contract and documentation management to ensure all sub-contractors were in line with SANS. Preparation and issuance of practical completion, final completion certificate close out report and project. 

Le Chez Consultants

• Worked as a civil design engineer with a consulting team of architects, surveyors and planners for the design of the ASA Women USA Cancer treatment centre. Project Involved, site feasibility studies, full scale architectural and structural drawings and supervision of construction.
• Interpreting architectural drawings, conceptualising and modelling the structural elements, analysis and civil design of structures. Mainly reinforced concrete residential and commercial structures as well as water, storm-water and waste water structures. All engineering designs were to the British Standard and/or Eurocode.
• Assist the senior engineer, project manager and lead architect in the planning and design phases of projects.
• Developing monitoring dashboard to manage sub-contractor performance and track alignment to project milestone.
• Worked with other engineers to ensure the delivery of project requirements as they related to scope, quality, time, costs and schedule.
• Developed and maintained project scope work documentation and revised as required during the design evolution. Working drawings were updated regularly to ensure as built drawings were reflecting what was on ground. All engineering drawings were created using prevalent AutoCAD version.
• Compiled and presented weekly and monthly engineering status reports on ongoing projects.
• Resolved on site construction problems and other challenges faced by contractor.

Master of Engineering (Civil) - University of the Witwatersrand

Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) Federal University of Technology Minna - Nigeria