John Lawlor

John Lawlor is the Head of Management Information Systems (MIS) at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland’s premier university.  The College is ranked among the top 50 universities in the world and the top 20 in Europe.

John established and manages Trinity’s ICT Programme Management Office (PMO) and Quality Assurance function, which oversee all current ICT development projects. The programme numbers about 30 projects (including software, hardware, infrastructure and services projects) with an estimated investment value of some €25 million (US $34 million). The PMO also manages the extensive pipeline of new project requests. The office recently completed the development of a comprehensive Project Management Framework and supporting technologies to underpin its work and to improve project management capability; project quality management; resource management and schedule compliance.

John leads Trinity’s MIS group, which builds, buys and integrates computer systems for researchers, academics, students and staff. He manages the operation, delivery and support of all enterprise applications and database management systems, which support over 20,000 users in a highly diverse and demanding 24x7x365 environment.

John is also the current Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Department of Transport in Ireland. The Department is responsible for implementing an integrated transport policy for Ireland and for delivering a quality transport system to underpin sustainable development. Approximately 35 state or semi-state agencies operate under the aegis of the Department in the areas of Air Transport, Road Transport, Public Transport and Maritime Services.  Under John’s Chairmanship, the Internal Audit Unit prepared its first three-year Strategic Audit Plan, a seminal achievement for an audit function in the Irish Civil Service.  It also initiated reviews of a number of key areas in the Department, and in agencies under its aegis, which led to streamlining and improvement of operations and the production and publication of the relevant improvement action plans.

Prior to joining Trinity, John was Head of Information Systems in Meath County Council, where he was responsible for all aspects of ICT management and service delivery.

He ran his own training and consulting company for several years and worked for large public and private sector organisations, primarily managing large-scale change programmes.

John was a Director of Information Risk Management in KPMG, the leading international firm of Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors. He was responsible for delivering project risk management services; systems security services and business continuity services to some of Ireland’s leading public and private sector organisations in a wide and varied range of industry sectors.

In his early career, John worked in the Computer Department of Dublin City Council where he implemented several large multi-user computer systems and developed software quality management standards and methods.

A graduate of, and former tutor at, Dublin City University, John is a member of the British Computer Society and of the Irish Computer Society and is a Chartered Information Technology Professional. He is the author and presenter of many training courses on general management; strategic management; project management; communications skills and personal development. He speaks regularly at seminars on public sector governance; internal audit; public financial management and value for money. He also writes on technology, business and career matters and his articles have been published in Irish and international professional journals.

John enjoys creative writing and was shortlisted for the RTÉ Radio 1 Francis Mac Manus short story competition 2004 (awarded in 2005).  His story was broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 in August 2005. He also enjoys writing technical and non-technical articles; blogging; photography; fishing and walking. He is a social media enthusiast and also enjoys exploring the capabilities of open source software.

Key skills: Strategic management; change management; programme and project management; project risk management; ICT systems procurement; process improvement; performance improvement; vendor and contract management; public sector corporate governance; internal audit, and risk management.

Click here to download a copy of John Lawlor’s biography.