Lean Higher Education Owners Panel (DC Metro CoP)

The DC Metro is hosting a Higher Education Owner’s Panel. Our three panelists will discuss and take questions on their perspective as an Owner of using Lean Principles on their higher education projects.

Panelists:

• Amr Abdel-Azim, is a pioneer in the area of facilities management in higher education. He spent most of his professional career leading major capital project at Michigan State University with 20+ years at main campus in East Lansing, Michigan. Amr have had leading innovative Lean practice in Campus facilities planning and design, including two major Integrated Project Delivery (IPS) projects on MSU main campus.
  
  His professional achievements include building the American University of Sharjah, an brank new campus from scratch at UAE.Founded in 1997, AUS is a private comprehensive university that has five colleges residing on a beautiful 300 acre located in the City of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. AUS was ranked as the top private university in the GFule Area by Forbes Middle East.
  
  Her served as the Senior Executive for Capital Projects at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) leading a capital construction program at RPI. The major Campus development involved $400-million-state-of-the-are interdisciplinary research Center and world-class performing art Center (EMPAC) and related infrastructure.
  
  Amr was Director of Physical Plant of the newly established the American University of Sharjah, started from scratch. The campus physical plant, which reflects a distinctive Arabic architectural style is comprised of 90 administrative, classroom, athletic/recreational and residential building totaling over 2,300,000 square feet.
  
  Amr hold a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s degree in urban planning. He is Certified Education Facilities Professional CEEP by APPA. He is the Chairperson of Lean in Public Service, an international organization that promotes Lean principles and applications I public sector agencies world-wide.
• Dr. Tariq Abdelhamid is Chief Lean Enterprise Officer with the Residential and Hospitality (RHS) Division at Michigan State University (MSU), where he is working with colleagues on a transformation journey to adopt Lean Thinking throughout RHS since 2013. He also holds an Associate Professor of Lean Construction appointment at the School of Planning, Design and Construction (MSU), where he teaches, conducts research, and routinely publishes on Lean Construction.
  
  Tariq served as the Lean/IPD Coach for the Shaw Hall Dining Renovation project at MSU (Jan 2013), the first Integrated Lean Project Delivery project at a public university in the United States.
  
  Tariq also worked with the MSU Infrastructure Planning and Facilities group on a 3-year process improvement initiative titled Excellence in Campus Operations and Services. Trained by Greg Howell and Glenn Ballard (founders of the Lean Construction Institute (LCI), USA),
  
  Tariq serves as chairperson of the LCI Academic Forum, is the Editor of the Lean Construction Journal since its inception in 2003, and is an LCI Research Fellow since 2016.  He is also a Steering Committee member of the Lean in the Public Sector (LIPS) organization (http://leaninpublicsector.org/)
  
  Tariq was a member of the first AGC Lean Construction Steering Committee, and he was also involved as a subject matter expert and content developer in the AGC of America Lean Construction Education Program (2009-2013). Tariq also works with Yokoten Consulting, Enovio Consulting, ReAlignment Group, and Gemba Kaizen Consulting on Lean Construction and Integrated Lean Project Delivery engagements with design and construction teams on projects of any budget size. Prior to joining MSU, in 2000, he was trained and worked as a Lean Production subject matter expert for Ford Motor Company. He also worked as a Scheduler/Planner for PAC Project Advisors, and an Engineer III for the University of Michigan Construction Engineering and Management Office.  He finished a PhD in Civil Engineering, MS in Industrial Engineering, MS in Construction Engineering and Management all from the University of Michigan, and BS in Civil Engineering from Alexandria University, Egypt. 
• D. Jeffrey Spackman, P.E., has been a Project Manager for Penn State Office of Physical Plant for over twenty years. He is a graduate of Penn State and a registered professional engineer in the State of Pennsylvania with 32+ years of experience.
  
  Jeff managed the first true IPD project for Penn State that was completed in 2018 for the additions and alterations of the Ag Engineering Building ($47M). The University implements a wide variety of delivery methods typically tied to specific funding sources including Design-Build, CM@Risj, CM Agent and traditional Design-Bid-Build. Jeff has been implementing Lean Principles and Integrated practices in these types of projects for the University. Recent examples include the $50M Power Plant Expansion, the $98M Animal, Veterinary and Biomedical Science Building and the $148M Physics/Osmond Additional and Alterations.
  
  Jeff is a frequent attendee at LCI Congress along with a past presenter. Jeff continues to keep on the ed of Lean by joining webinars, benchmarking with the industry, and connecting with experts in the field. He then shares that knowledge with peers with Penn State, other institutions and with service providers.
  
  Prior top working at Penn State, Jeff worked in private practice specializing in medical and institutional facilities. He later directed the physical plant operations for a K-12 school district. Outside of work, Jeff and his family maintain a farm in Centre County raising livestock and organic crops.