Books & Beyond
Books & Beyond is a webinar series sponsored by The PMO Leader that highlights the best Project Management Books Authored by industry leaders. Have you ever wanted to ask the author of the book you're reading a question? Now you can, as host Ilinca Nicolescu interview the authors of some of our favorite Agile, PMO and Project Management books.
Host
Ilinca (Thinka) Nicolescu, a naturalized Canadian, originally from Romania, with educational and professional background in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Business Management. Curious about research & development, Ilinca continued to work her way up to Clinical Research and quickly discovered the passion for Project Management. Throughout her 10 year long career in the industry, Ilinca has worked with numerous pharmaceutical companies leading global teams on innovative research projects, programs and portfolios finding new treatments and improving patient lifestyle.
Ilinca is very passionate about and actively engaged in volunteering which is how she became part of The PMO Leader (TPL) family, at first as Ambassador for Canada, followed by taking the role of organizer and host of the Books & Beyond series, producing almost 30 episodes in a span of 2 years. Ilinca also supported TPL organize the Annual Global Conference in 2022, 2023 - Conference Lead, 2024 and TPL Community Hall of Fame.
As of 2025, Ilinca joined TPL as Board Member and will continue to support TPL achieve it's mission: the go-to community for aspiring or existing PMO Leaders looking to learn, improve and grow!
Aside from volunteering, Ilinca spends her personal time flying aerobatics and vintage planes, a childhood passion that came to fruition in 2023 after obtaining her private pilot license.
Episodes
- Is the Project Management Office Still Fit For Purpose? with Fatimah Abbouchi (E01)
- Being a Young Project Manager with Daniel Zitter and Hamutal Weisz (E02)
- How the Project Management Office Can Use Artificial Intelligence To Improve The Bottom Line with Paul Boudreau (E03)
- It Starts With You: Letters To My Younger Self On How To Get Going In Your Career with Aina Alive (E04)
- Easy in Theory, Difficult in Practice: 100 Lessons in Project Leadership with Kiron Bondale (E05)
- The me you want to be: Roger's Rules for a Bigger, Better, More Powerful YOU with Roger Haskett (E06)
- Engaging Stakeholders on Projects: How to Harness People Power with Elizabeth Harrin (E07)
- The Keys to our Success with David Barrett (E08)
- Project Communications – Why does this continue to be point of project failure? with Bill Dow (E09)
- Are you managing or motivating? Using your motivational intelligence to make things happen! with Ruth Pearce (E10)
- From order to chaos, Reasoning_with_Mark, Son of the Caribbean! with Mark Burnett (E11)
- Strategies for PM Success: Tips, Techniques and Best Practices with Ruffin Veal (E12)
- Setting up a PMO with Hussain Bandukwala (E13)
- Great Meetings Build Great Teams with Richard Maltzman and Jim Stewart (E14)
- Bedtime Stories for PMs with Marisa Silva (E15)
- Successful Independent Consulting: Relationships That Focus on Mutual Benefit with Johanna Rothman (E16)
- PMO Lifecycle with Bill Dow (E17)
- Mastering Solution Delivery with Obi Omoregie (E18)
- Celebrating women leading project management with Jennie Fowler (E19)
- The effective IT Project Manager with Carl Canlas (E20)
- Stakeholder-led Project Management with Louise Worsley (E21)
- P3G with Ross Garland and Adrian Morey (E22)
- Be Hopeful; Be Strong; Be Brave; Be Curious with Ruth Pearce (E23)
- Delivering value with project management with Juanita Woods (E24)
- Meet the Players in Projectland with Dawn Mahan (E25)
- The IMPACT Engine with Laura Barnard (E26)
- Presentation Sprint with Renaud Taburiaux (E27)
- Compassionate Accountability with Nate Regier (E28)