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How do we transform infrastructure experts into infrastructure leaders in time for Canada’s building boom? Canada is facing a future of increased infrastructure projects, but the country has a poor track record when it comes to delivering major projects. In fact, “over time and over budget” is a global industry trope.
In pursuit of systemic, upstream solutions, Riccardo compiles an esteemed panel of experts for a timely and critical conversation: how do we elevate the leadership of multi-billion-dollar major infrastructure programmes essential to our country’s national culture and well-being? Barriers to collaboration, differences and similarities between infrastructure programmes and corporations, the behavioural versus the technical—the industry leaders break down what’s going wrong and why we haven’t fixed it yet. Unwilling to stop at theory, the group posits and troubleshoots actionable ways governments and the private sector could work together to quickly and effectively shore up Canada’s infrastructure industry.
Key Takeaways:
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“I think we can create a program that builds on the global experience and best practices, but also captures Canada’s own project delivery cultures, business practices, community needs, and sees leadership through that lens and enables us to deliver projects. But it's going to take governments coming on board and recognizing the value that it's not just private sector expertise on these projects. You don't just hand over a project and then say come back in five years and we'll cut the ribbon together. There's a ton of leadership that's required on the public sector side too, at the highest levels of the organization to make sure that these projects stay on track.” - Matti Siemiatycki
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Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.
How does cross-over between diverse perspectives and cultures affect project delivery, and how could it be improved? In this episode of Uncharted Conversations, Shormila and Riccardo are once again joined by fellow infrastructure experts David Ho and Melissa Di Marco. Their animated discussion explores how organizational dynamics—building teams that combine both multi-service and multinational cultures—impact the successful delivery of major programmes.
Jumping directly into the action items of a project, as the client often expects, is a great dopamine hit, but is it really the best approach? The self-proclaimed industry pirates call out the drawbacks of North America’s checks and balances tradition and the need for more client ownership. This episode aims the cannons at systemic assumptions and poses big questions to procurement professionals, all with the crew’s uniquely provocative and playful inspection of their industry.
Key Takeaways:
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“I have never seen an RFP where the client who is asking for a description of a team is doing so with reference to a real understanding of how you, private sector company, delineate the function that's responsible for the delivery of a service from the function that is responsible for the P&L from the way in which you have a team structured for a pursuit versus when you shift into execution. And even just that type of a description would be an interesting change I think for the better that would allow clients a more sophisticated understanding of how things work.” - David Ho
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Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.
What does it take to transform a gateway station into a place where people pause in their head-down commute to connect and reflect? Riccardo Cosentino and returning co-host Corail Bourrelier Fabiani are joined by Jonathan Ring, the Development Director for London-based developer Sellar. They explore the public art programme at Paddington Square—one of the city’s most ambitious and complex redevelopment projects.
Jonathan shares how the programme evolved from the early planning conditions to the final installation. His experience highlights the balance inherent in major projects, where diverse stakeholder voices, strict timelines, and logistical constraints pile on the pressure and teamwork is non-negotiable.
Public art may be a smaller portion of the overall budget, but its impact on the public experience is profound. This episode offers an inside look at the creative and collaborative processes behind curating art in a heavily trafficked urban space. It is a conversation about leadership, legacy, and how the spaces we build shape how people feel.
Key Takeaways
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“We're really trying to create a place people want to dwell in because it's got very interesting areas around it. And the public art really formed a major part of that, creating a place where people dwell in. What's great is now seeing in the summer, and I bet today, people will be sitting out in the square enjoying the public realm, seeing the art and enjoying it.” - Jonathan Ring
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Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.
Can you rise up in the industry without an engineering degree? Kirsten Watson, AECOM’s Transit Market Sector Lead, is a case study in how continuous passion for learning and a celebration and honing your strengths—even when they don’t appear to be the perfect fit for a role—can lead to a varied and rewarding career. Co-hosts Riccardo and Shormila sit down with the transit executive on the interpersonal side of the industry in this episode of the Master Builder series. They break down the challenges and wins of major infrastructure projects and explore Kirsten’s career trajectory from private to public and back again. Their conversation explores the reality of the skills you really need (and don’t) for leadership, particularly as a woman in the industry.
Kirsten’s background in employment law and HR have instilled in her a deep respect for listening—to clients, to stakeholders, to the smartest person in the room. As she explains, that’s how she’s become the one who brings the right people to the table, and it’s how even now, as a master builder, she leads with learning and pushes herself to say yes to even the most challenging opportunities.
Key Takeaways:
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“I think that's what I bring to the table, is the ability to bring other people to the table. And when we're talking about women in leadership and women saying yes. Bring the right people to the table and solve the problems through that team and that collaboration trying to learn other bits of the business so that you can actually do that work.” - Kirsten Watson
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Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.
Even traditional contracts can be collaborative with the right team. As a seasoned infrastructure leader who has served in government, private sector, and advisory roles for more than 15 years, Fred Antunes has seen this firsthand. His extensive experience delivering large-scale projects under P3s, design-builds, and collaborative models guides this wide-ranging and nuanced conversation with Riccardo. Together, they unpack truths and myths around what makes projects work.
Fred’s real-world insights help to highlight the power owners have to shape project relationships and outcomes, the dangers of shifting risk without support, and why alliance contracts call for experienced and deeply engaged teams.
Fred and Riccardo reframe collaboration beyond just a type of contract and offer up a compelling case for considering the unique needs, risks, and capabilities of each project team when choosing a delivery approach.
Key Takeaways
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“The thing about the alliance that's really interesting is, it’s like setting up a new company. Where you basically have an alliance leadership team that is providing oversight and direction. They're like the board of directors. You appoint somebody who's the CEO and then you basically create an organization that includes people from the owner, the designer, the contractor, put them together and you may have somebody from the owner's team managing somebody who's in the design team, or in the construction team, but they're all working for the best outcome of the project. And working as one coherent management team.” - Fred Antunes
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Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.
What does it take to lead with integrity and empathy in an industry where technical expertise can quickly outweigh human connection? In this episode of the Master Builder series, Ethel Craft joins Riccardo and Shormila to reflect on a career rooted in service—from her beginnings in social services to her leadership role in Ottawa’s rail construction program.
Ethel shares how a leadership course during her MBA sparked her passion for mentoring others, ultimately guiding her to pursue a Doctorate in Business while working full-time. Through personal challenges, professional pivots, and academic milestones, Ethel has remained grounded in one goal: to be a role model and a connector. She leads with a deep respect for the people around her and a clear-eyed view of stakeholder relations. Her track record highlights the vital balance leaders must strike between respect for those around them and confidence that they have earned their place, regardless of the journey that brought them to the table.
Within this celebration of Ethel’s achievements is an invitation to re-envision what leadership can look like, in infrastructure and beyond.
Key Takeaways:
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“I felt like I was just draining everything within me, and at the same time, I needed to be a mom. And I was working, too. So, it was hard. But I had this amazing supervisor who just kept telling me, you can do this. Never putting pressure on me, telling me to take the time. And so when I talk about having a support system, it's a word that we take for granted, right? But to have that network around you that makes you feel full on the inside is crucial.” - Ethel Craft
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Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.
Uncharted Conversations facilitates unscripted and controversial discussions aimed at disrupting the infrastructure industry. In the face of major skills shortages affecting Canada’s major programmes, Riccardo sits down with David Ho, the National Leader for Healthcare and Buildings at Accenture. What begins as a look at the skill-based industry shortcomings transforms into a nuanced conversation about cultural, structural, and leadership challenges.
Is the talent shortage just about trades and technical labour, or are we also seeing a void in leadership and bold thinking? Together, David and Riccardo dig into why the industry struggles to innovate, what it would take to truly break from tradition, and how a fear-based approach to risk weakens even the most capable leaders. They explore how changing political priorities, unclear project outcomes, and resistance to outside ideas further complicate the path forward.
This conversation challenges long-held assumptions and invites anyone involved at every stage of the infrastructure delivery lifecycle to have the kinds of discussions that, David and Riccardo argue, are essential to carrying the industry into the future.
Key Takeaways:
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“I encounter lots of different infrastructure leaders and usually conversations where these individuals are reflecting on their own organizations or on other organizations. Somewhere within the diagnosis is a problem of disempowerment. And that when people and leaders are not truly empowered, they fail to live up to what are their on paper accountabilities. And lack of empowerment at all different levels of leadership causes people to put the blinders on, work in their silo and become content or comfortable being told what to do. And that is the sort of exact opposite type of outcome and behaviour we want from leaders.” - David Ho
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Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.
How do we build better cities that hold community in as high regard as revenue? It starts with an approach to urban infrastructure that goes beyond roads and bridges. In this episode of Navigating Major Programmes, Riccardo sits down with Matti Siemiatycki, Director of the Infrastructure Institute and a professor at the University of Toronto.
Matti draws from both his academic work and practical involvement in major projects to outline the potential of community impact, intentional design, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The right balance of these components can change the way cities are built and expand their positive impacts exponentially.
From reimagining schools and fire stations as mixed-use spaces to championing health-oriented communities, Matti offers a compelling argument for infrastructure that does more than meet technical needs. He explains why universities are uniquely positioned to support community-driven projects, how the Infrastructure Institute leverages academic insight into real-world support, and why we need a mindset shift to make the most of aging public assets.
With case studies that range from TIFF Bell Lightbox to stacked fire stations, this episode challenges conventional thinking. Matti designs a hopeful vision for what’s possible when planners, policymakers, and local communities work together by design.
Key Takeaways:
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“I've become really engaged on this idea that we can build schools differently and that you can have a stack school. Reimagining what a mixed use school might look like. You have to make sure that the building is safe and that there's no unsupervised access between the different uses. There's always questions about where the schoolyard is going to go. Because a lot of the communities we're building now are very dense and so there's questions about like, can you have some part of the school yard on the roof of the building, for example, so it's a shared use. How does the housing actually fit up above and how do they access it?" - Matti Siemiatycki
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Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.
What does it take to lead major programmes in one of the world’s most complex, highly regulated, and rapidly evolving sectors? Carol Tansley has built a career doing just that. In this episode of the Master Builder series, she joins Riccardo to talk about her unconventional path to leadership in the nuclear industry. Carol takes listeners through her early days in international consulting, a transformative period working in Saudi Arabia, up to her current role spearheading major nuclear projects at X-Energy in Maryland.
Carol offers a candid look at what it means to lead with strategy and humility. She shares how returning to school mid-career helped sharpen her focus and how stakeholder alignment is the biggest differentiator of success. They also explore why complex infrastructure projects demand more than technical skills—genuine engagement, curiosity, and a deep respect for collaboration are equally essential. Whether you’re already in the field or considering your options in programme management, Carol’s humble and holistic perspective is a powerful reminder of how valuable and versatile project leadership can be.
Key Takeaways
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“But I would say, you know, from an early stage in my career, I think the thing you learn more than anything is, I'll call it stakeholder management, for want of a more delicate expression. You know, the ability to be able to help people. I mean, something somebody told me years and years ago, and this wasn't even in a work context, was when there's somebody standing in front of you, what you should do is look and think, how can I help this person? And I think if you bring that kind of mindset, you know, what can you do to try and make everybody else successful? That really helps. An ability to think about how you add value on other people's terms, not just what is valuable in your context. And I feel like that, that has served me quite well wherever I've been. You know, ability to. And the willingness to listen and understand what it is other people are needing and what will help them to be successful.” - Carol Tansley
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Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.
In the second installment of this two-part series on public–private partnerships (P3s), Riccardo and his expert guests move from theory to practice, digging into the real-world complexities and nuances that make or break these projects. Emily Moore (University of Toronto), Pouya Zangeneh (University of Calgary), and Rob Pattison (Rob Pattison Consulting) return to share lessons from the field and reflections on how innovation, collaboration, and contract design shape project outcomes.
Together, they explore why achieving true output-based specifications is so challenging in regulated environments, when P3s work best for complex projects, and how to balance innovation with safety and quality. The conversation also delves into the human factors behind success: how courage, trust, and integrity influence outcomes far more than contract structures alone.
From navigating biases in project estimation to building the conditions for genuine collaboration, this episode offers a candid look at what it takes to deliver high-quality infrastructure through public–private partnerships today.
Key Takeaways
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“I'm first and foremost a contracts person, and I love contracts and I believe in freedom of contract. Freedom of contract means, at its heart, the freedom to make what might appear to others to be a bad deal, right? So let me offer the three of you a deal. I'm going to pay you, I don't know, a thousand bucks a year. And if I get drunk and fall asleep smoking in my bed, you're going to build me a new house for a couple of million bucks, anybody want to sign that contract with me, right? You'd be crazy to. That's a crazy contract, right? But my insurance company does that for me. They take that bet and they make a bucket of money doing it. Maybe not these days, but, you know, traditionally, that's a contract that looks ridiculous on its face, and yet it works.” - Rob Pattison
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Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.
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