The inaugural winner of the ICCPM PM Prize is Lee O’Dowd-Austen, a recent postgraduate student of the Master of Project Management program at the University of Technology Sydney.  Lee was awarded the prize based on his academic performance in the Managing Project Complexity subject. Lee was presented his prize at the 2016 Design Architecture and Building Prize Giving by the then Dean, Professor Desley Luscombe.

“ICCPM is pleased to join with the University of Technology Sydney in awarding this prize to Lee to recognise his academic excellence in the Managing Complexity subject of his Master’s Program”, said Deborah Hein, MD/CEO of ICCPM.  “Our purpose in sponsoring this specific prize is to encourage and inspire graduates to join with and become some of the best practitioners in the world so that one day they can manage projects of national significance and potentially become a Fellow of ICCPM”.

“It was an honour to be nominated for this award among the field of my capable and hard working peers”, said Lee.  “Despite being instrumental to project success or failure the complexity of projects is often overlooked.  Through my Masters course at UTS, Dr Julien Pollack and Dr Kaye Remington have helped me understand both how important it is to proactively deal with complexity in projects, and how to do it. Thank you UTS and ICCPM for your encouragement and support.”

For further information, please contact ICCPM on admin@iccpm.com or 02 6120 5110.


The International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM) is a partner and membership based not-for-profit organisation utilising global networks to facilitate research and disseminate knowledge about complexity; to develop and deliver complexity education products for practitioners; and to connect practitioners and subject matter experts with business and government to improve internal organisational capability.

The ICCPM Vision is ‘to be the internationally recognised body, building capability in organisations to deal with complex environments’.  ICCPM delivers this vision through Stakeholder Relationships, Thought Leadership, Education and Solution Services.

Initially Lee studied for a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) from the University of New England and wrote a thesis that tested the philosophical underpinnings of creating an artificially-intelligent electronic circuit.  In his early career after graduating he went on to manage a community mental health support service and a community building service for men at risk of suicide then he moved on to procuring services for government for the better part of ten years.  Since graduating from Master Project Management at UTS earlier this year Lee has been working for NSW Government on a policy framework that will evaluate the social and economic performance of social services across NSW and also on PhD research to propose a way for government to implement a Total Quality Management framework so that the performance of contracts can be better understood and improved over time.

The post-graduate project management degrees offered at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) are internationally recognised and certified degrees providing a pathway into specialised project management roles, or advancement to project and program director positions. Students have the unique opportunity to develop a specialised skill set by choosing a sub-major in business, construction, engineering, IT, local government management, or health. This approach provides students with the opportunity to combine project management disciplines with sector-focused knowledge. The course incorporates UTS’s block teaching approach, which creates an immersive environment where students work with their peers in a team-based, simulated project environment.