Stephan Agnitsch

PMP, MMIM

Stephan Agnitsch is a member of the Project Management Institute and an active member of the Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Chapter, Stephan is Certified as a PMP® by PMI®. He is a Member of Rotary International, the Malaysian Cancerlink Society, the Construction Industry Institute, the Malaysian Institute of Management, and Toastmaster International – MIM Chapter.

Stephan has taken a unique path in gaining his expertise in project management and best practices. Mr. Agnitsch began his career in the project field as a craftsman, training in most all of the disciplines involved in the industrial construction application area, in the Oil, Gas, Petrochemical, Chemical and Power industries.

Over the years Stephan has worked “in the trenches”, moving on to a number of years of field supervision, evolving to management positions which allowed him to observe, study, compare and develop work processes that were proven to maximize the opportunities of project success. This unique evolution brings a perspective of real-world situations to the knowledge areas which we are guided by, through PMBOK and other astute PM institutions. The past 16 years have been focused on providing mentoring, coaching and training, directly on project sites, to the full range of project staff and primarily to executive management.

After 58 major projects (>5 million USD), 5 of which can be classified as mega-projects, and over 130 minor projects (<5 million). Mr. Agnitsch has recently chosen to leave the field of full-time onsite project mentoring and training to focus on writing about proven methodologies, and to impart this knowledge via lectures , workshops and courses offered by Management Concepts A.P.

Mr. Agnitsch is diverse in many of the knowledge areas with particular experience in managing capital value processes, gated project phase models, project charters and plans, functional schedules, multi-project controls, claims avoidance, project assessments, recovery and acceleration planning, turnarounds, risk management, and de-bottleneck projects. He is highly proficient in the planning and execution of: Testing, Commissioning and Startup using his firms’ proprietary methodology, towards achieving reliability factors in accordance with project business objectives and strategies.

A non-exhaustive list of major organisations Stephan has worked with include; Chevron (Oil, Chemical and Research), Tosco, Proctor & Gamble, Petronas, W.R. Grace, Harbert International, British Petroleum, Sinopec, Thurmalai Chemicals, Rohm and Haas, Cutter Laboratories, Foster Wheeler, BE&K, Dow Chemical, Union Oil, Aminoil, USS Posco, Stone & Webster, Keyes Fiber, and, Kaiser Steel, and Ranhill Worley.

Stephan is a dedicated father of four children and has made his home in Malaysia for the past 14 years. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Program Atur Sdn Bhd, a project and construction methodologies firm formed in 1994, and is Managing Director and Co-founder of the recently formed firm of First Sunray Sdn Bhd.

Most recently, Mr. Agnitsch held the position of Associate Consultant to an Integrated Petrochemical Complex Management Team in Malaysia, providing guidance and assistance in the development of management processes that would guide the multinational businesses to profitability and World Class practices towards global competitiveness.

He has been published in PM Network and continues to compose articles for other PM publications with a primary interest in optimization of virtual team organisations, and project success through the use of the latest techniques in Project Management.

Stephan’s most valuable asset for his students has been his passion to make a difference in the world of Project Management. This enthusiasm is conveyed in his dynamic delivery of course material complemented by real-world case situations.

Mr. Agnitsch has spent the last 16 years mentoring CEO’s, VP’s, MD’s, PD’s, PM’s and key staff in the challenges, risks and mitigation strategies of numerous projects, fourteen of those years being in Malaysia. He has participated in benchmarking projects with international firms and has managed programs developed for various fortune 500 companies designed to enhance the abilities to identify and achieve stated project objectives. This is accomplished by using proven methodologies of best practices designed to maintain capital spending competitiveness.

We are fortunate that Stephan has chosen to open his treasure box of knowledge to share with those fortunate to work with him and attend his sessions. Mr. Agnitsch is keenly aware that people are what make projects necessary, and are the primary reason for success in projects. Empowerment, principles, tools and techniques provide people the means to reach those goals. These are achieved through training, mentoring and ensuring that teams reach their project and career aspirations.