Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain
Described by Harvard Business Review's Adi Ignatius as "the father of modern project management," Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez is widely regarded as the most influential thinker of the 21st century in modernizing project management and bringing it to the executive level. With 35 contributions in HBR — more than any other author on the topic — and two appearances on the Thinkers50 ranking of the world's most influential management thinkers, he has done more than anyone to move projects from an operational afterthought to the core of how organizations lead change and create value. In his latest book, Powered by Projects (HBR Press, 2026), and his HBR article "The Project-Driven Organization" (2026), he sets out a bold framework for reinventing how organizations deliver change in a world of continuous transformation. He is also the author of The HBR Project Management Handbook (2021), the widely read article "The Project Economy Has Arrived" (2021), and five other books on strategy execution and modern project management. A Fellow and former Chairman of the Project Management Institute (PMI), Antonio serves as Vice President of the Association for Project Management (APM). As founder of Projects & Co and co-founder of the Strategy Implementation Institute, he has created globally recognized certifications in AI for project leaders and in strategy implementation. His impact is measured in the leaders and organizations he has transformed: more than 80 companies advised and over 10,000 leaders trained worldwide. Antonio works with senior teams at organizations including GSK, BNP Paribas, L'Oréal, Repsol, Galp, KLM, Saudia, AB InBev, ING, Euronext, and Moody's, and with public-sector initiatives such as Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 — helping them build transformation capabilities, shift culture, and execute complex change. He has delivered over 600 keynotes at events including TEDx, Gartner Summits, and the European Business Summit, and teaches at leading business schools including Hult, Duke CE, IE Business School, Solvay, and Vlerick. Antonio is a LinkedIn Learning instructor with over ten courses and author of the newsletter "Lead Projects Successfully." Originally from Madrid, he has lived and studied in Germany, Mexico, Italy, and the United States, speaks five languages, holds an MBA from London Business School, and completed the INSEAD International Directors Program. He is a proud member of the Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches.
In 2021, after more than two decades of leading complex projects and transformations, I founded Projects & Company with the mission to help organizations drive their transformations faster, more effectively, and with lasting impact. As CEO, I lead a global network of highly experienced transformation experts, focusing on delivering measurable results that go beyond traditional consulting models. Projects & Company offers a range of services designed to build internal transformation capabilities within organizations, reducing reliance on external consultancies while accelerating results.
After 20 years in project management, I recognized a crucial gap in the career development of professionals in this field. While project management associations like PMI and IPMA focused on core project management skills, there was little emphasis on strategy implementation. To address this, I co-founded the Strategy Implementation Institute in 2018 with Robin Speculant, a global expert in strategy execution. As co-founder, I co-developed the course content and certification and partnered with APMG International to accredit the program. Ongoing promotion of the institute’s offerings, creating the popular LinkedIn Learning course, and delivering tailored training programs to corporate clients, helping professionals and organizations achieve implementation excellence.
As the head of the Project Management Office (PMO) at GSK Vaccines, my focus was on enhancing shareholder value by driving the implementation of performance growth initiatives and fostering leadership engagement. My role involved collaborating with senior management to ensure that GSK Vaccines’ strategic objectives were translated into successful projects and programs, optimizing resource allocation, and delivering projects on time and within budget. A critical aspect of this role was developing project management capabilities across Global Operations & Quality, aligning project resources with GSK’s strategic goals, and promoting harmonized project management practices across various functions and sites. In addition to leading the Center of Excellence for project management, I also oversaw the Shared Services function, which provided global operations and quality teams with top-tier project management services. I worked on strategic, multidisciplinary, and multi-site projects, ensuring efficient resource use and cost-effectiveness while delivering on leadership's expectations. By acting as a business partner for transversal projects, I helped deliver the full potential of GSK’s strategic initiatives, ensuring high-impact results that aligned with the company’s long-term objectives.
As Sustainability Transformation Program Director, I was tasked with enabling the business to effectively drive change and align its sustainability ambitions with operational goals. My role required close collaboration with senior leadership teams and a broad network of stakeholders across various departments, including Finance, to ensure the sustainability strategy was seamlessly integrated into the overall business strategy. I played a key role in facilitating the development of business unit sustainability transformation plans and overseeing the implementation of major change initiatives. In this role, I was responsible for managing several key projects across seven sustainability workstreams while overseeing deliverables across the entire transformation program. This involved providing leadership in program governance, tracking key deliverables, and ensuring that the initiatives were progressing on schedule and within budget. I was also accountable for assessing program risks and implementing mitigation strategies to address them. My efforts helped align GSK's sustainability goals with practical, measurable business outcomes, driving both value creation and risk mitigation across the organization.
First Spanish board member of the global PMI Board of Directors, the world’s largest not-for-profit membership association for the project management profession, with over 650,000 members in 185 countries. I served as Vice Chairman in 2015 and led as global Chairman in 2016. In 2014, I was elected Strategy Committee Chair, where I facilitated strategic dialogue and maintained PMI’s strategic plan. During my tenure, I launched PMI’s Brightline Initiative, which aimed to elevate CEOs' and senior leaders' perceptions of project management's value. I introduced PMI to influential forums such as Thinkers50 and the Global Peter Drucker Forum and connected with thought leaders like Rita McGrath, Roger Martin, Marshall Goldsmith, and Dorie Clark.
As Head of Transversal Portfolio Manager, and reporting directly to both the Bank Vice President and the Chief Information Officer, I was responsible for the development and implementation of a company-wide project selection and prioritization process. Starting from idea generation, the alignment with the strategy and the execution of the key projects. I am now in charge of the application of the process in the entire bank. I facilitate the prioritization exercise with the Investment Committee, composed of members of the executive committee. The final outcome of the process is an approved strategic roadmap, a list of prioritised projects that will help the bank achieve its strategic objectives. I am responsible of monitoring the execution of the roadmap, providing quarterly updates to the executive committee.
As Head of Post-Merger Integration in the M&A department, and reporting directly to both the Group Chief Financial Officer and the Group Chief Strategy Officer, I was involved in the preparation and execution of the ABN AMRO separation and integration. This was the largest merger in the Financial Services industry, for which Fortis paid 24 billion euro and was expecting to deliver 1.3 billion of recurring synergies. My role consisted in planning all the activities within the entire Fortis ABN AMRO integration and the coordination and follow-up of more than 120 programs composed of more than 1.000 projects. I managed a team of 12 with a reach to 2.000 team members involved in the integration.