Prof Giel Bekker
Module: Project Management in the Business Context
Michiel Christiaan (Giel) Bekker, PhD, Pr.Eng
Giel is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Technology Management at the University of Pretoria where he is the Academic Lead of the Master’s Programme in Project Management (MPM), the only master’s programme in project management on the African Continent that is accredited by the GAC of the PMI (Project Management Institute). His tuition is primarily focused on the MEM (Masters in Engineering Management) and MPM (Masters in Project Management) programmes as well as various short courses to specific clients and institutions like Eskom, ABSA, Dept of Water Affairs, Denel, Habitat for Humanities, MTN, Glencore, Group 5, Anglo American, Kumba, Sasol, Exxaro, Komatiland, etc. The APPM (Advanced Programme in Project Management) was developed under his leadership. In 2009 he received an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship to teach on the Master in Strategic Project Management Programme at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland and in 2011 at Umea University in Sweden on the same programme. He is also a visiting scholar at the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania.
In practice he consults and contract project management services to industry through the company ProjectWay Consulting and Contracting. Clients include Eskom, Denel, ABSA, Anglo American, Kumba Resources, Deloitte Consulting, National Parks, MTN, Glencore, Anglo American, ARM, Mintails, First Uranium, MDM Engineering, Fidelity Security, Rift Valley, Daimler, etc. From 1990 to 2000 he was employed by Sasol Technologies, a petrochemical company. His duties included the mechanical design of chemical, water purification and petrochemical equipment and facilities. His career soon progressed into project and construction management and spent one year in Munich, Germany developing a new petrochemical plant. Before leaving Sasol in July 2000 he managed a department of 20 project managers with a total project portfolio budget of USD 200million. Since 2000 he has overseen more than 200 projects, mostly in the heavy industry, building and mining sectors. He is currently acting as Project Director for a mega project in the automotive industry.
During 1996 he established the Mpumalanga Branch of the Project Management Institute of South Africa (PMISA) and served as president for two years. He is co-founder and Director of the Africa Chapter of the Construction Industry Institute (CII).
His education includes a B.Eng (Mechanical) from the University of Pretoria, M.Eng (Mechanical – Water Purification) from University of Johannesburg, a HBA and MBA from the University of Stellenbosch and PhD in Project Governance from the University of Pretoria. He is also a certified Professional Engineer. His research interests include project management capacity modeling, organizational aspects of project management, methodology development, and project governance. He authored / co-authored numerous articles and has supervised more than 100 Masters and PhD students between 2000 and 2020 in the field of project and quality management. Giel also presented various international lectures and papers in the UK, China, USA, Japan, Germany, Turkey, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Botswana, Malawi, Ivory Coast, Namibia and Nigeria. He actively participated in the development of the ISO 21500 - Guidance for Project Management and sub-group leader of the ISO 21503 Working Group into Project Governance. In 2003 he received the Project Management Excellence Award from PMSA for Outstanding Performance in the Field of Project Execution.
He is married with two sons and enjoys all sport, camping, sports photography and hunting. A single handicap golfer he was also chairman of the University of Pretoria Golf Club.
