Makaran Wins Project Management Award

John Makaran, chair of Manufacturing Sciences at Fanshawe College, has won the Project Management Institute's Distinguished Contributor Award. The award was announced at the Project Management Institute's international conference in Denver, Colorado, in October. (At right: John Makaran at Fanshawe's fall graduation ceremonies.)

Makaran, who managed projects on three continents before coming to Fanshawe from industry, promoted the introduction of project management courses that will soon extend to all technical programs for people going into the manufacturing sector. Students who started last year in electrical manufacturing and millwright programs were the first to study project management at Fanshawe.

Through his experiences managing major projects in Germany, Korea, China and Taiwan, Makaran became a strong believer in the need for project management skills.

"I knew, although I was good technically, unless I had project management skills I wouldn't be able to carry the projects forward and the project would be doomed because you can get sidetracked if you don't have a plan," Makaran said.

Even though project management is relatively new to Manufacturing Sciences students, it is already paying dividends. Makaran said he recently asked a student whether Fanshawe had prepared him for work in industry. He asked specifically about project management.

"When I was going through the course, I didn't think I'd need that stuff, but in industry I really need it," the student said.

"I'm not surprised," Makaran said, adding: "We're putting our students at an advantage."

Makaran said the province has now recognized project management as a vocational learning outcome. "I'm proud to say we are already in the vanguard. We anticipated change and we acted on it prior to the province mandating it," Makaran said.

The Southwestern Ontario chapter of the Project Management Institute recognized Makaran's efforts and nominated him for the Distinguished Contributor Award. Although there were numerous nominations worldwide, Makaran was one of only two people this year to receive the award.