PMO Team Leader

Laura Skinner, PMO Team Leader, UCL Estates

My name is Laura Skinner and I am the PMO Team Leader for UCL Estates. I report to the Assistant Director - Programme Management and am responsible for leading the programme management team (PMO) within UCL Estates. This senior and strategic role provides leadership, sets standard for the project, programme and portfolio management to enable the successful delivery of the UCL Estates portfolio through effective assurance, tracking and reporting. My early life career was in online betting, I used to run a floor of 50 bookies! Following redundancy, I decided to change my career path and joined UCL Estates PMO in February 2018.
 

My initial role was working as a Project Support Officer on the Strategic Maintenance Programme. After 6 months I was promoted to Project Analyst where I worked on UCL East. During this year I commenced a distance learning master’s degree in Construction Project Management to increase my knowledge. I was then promoted to PMO Manager where I set up the reporting and governance on the Minor Works programme before moving to cover the Capital Programme. This summer I was promoted to PMO Team Leader where I lead a team that support all the programmes in UCL Estates. I never really had a plan, I just took all opportunities as they came my way. I didn’t plan to work in an Estates department, in fact whilst I was working in online betting I planned to transition into a career that focussed on statistics and started studying a degree in Mathematics & Statistics. After joining UCL I paused that degree to take advantage of the opportunities being offered to me here and so far it has worked out! The most important thing has always been to never be bored in a job and add value to an organisation.

My Construction Management master’s degree changed the path of my career alongside the hands on experience that I got from UCL. The advice I would give to others is to work hard, and don’t be afraid to ask and get involved. What’s next? Who knows. The reason why I love my job at UCL Estates is because no day is the same and I am supported in knowing that anything is possible for me and my career.