DrLeila Moslemi Naeni

Leila is an internationally acclaimed project management expert and the director of the UTS postgraduate Project Management program. Her research spans project controls, project performance evaluation under uncertain conditions, and the use of disruptive technologies for performance management. Her goal is to facilitate technological and industrial transformation by improving contemporary project management practices.

With a background in engineering and computer science and more than seven years of experience in the construction industry, Leila takes a uniquely interdisciplinary approach to her work. She is known for developing and proposing fuzzy methods for evaluating projects and for applying a broad range of mathematical modelling and data science techniques to her research.

Leila is currently the CI on a project funded by PGCS to investigate the impact of Environmental Social Governance (ESG) reporting on project governance and controls. She is also leading an investigation into the use of new technologies to make the construction industry more accessible to women.

She has published broadly in leading journals such as the International Journal of Project Management, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Computers & Operations Research, Expert systems with Applications, and PLoS One. She was the recipient of the 2016 Project Management Research Award from the Australian Project Management Institute (NSW) in recognition of her research on using specialised control charts for monitoring project performance.

Leila is a current Review Editor of the Frontiers in Environmental Economics and Management and a member of the Editorial Review Board of Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE). She also held Project Management Professional certification since 2013 and has been a member of the Project Management Institute since 2012. Leila is an onsite team member of the PMI Global Accreditation Centre.

She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Newcastle (2017) and a Master of Industrial Engineering (2007) from the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, and a Bachelor of Industrial engineering (2004) from the Iran University of Science and Technology.