Non-fiction: Conquering Chaos: How to lead in a time of extraordinary change

Tim Kotnour’s CV includes the Lockheed Martin St. Laurent Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems at the University of Central Florida and Director of the UCF Engineering Leadership and Innovation Institute (eli2) and the Professional Engineering Management Program. He completed his doctorate in Industrial & Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech. His core work focuses on “making strategy real.” He integrates both corporate and academic settings by partnering with senior management teams to develop solutions through technical assistance, education, training, and research.

Corporate Setting. Tim focuses on strategic management, organizational transformations, and solution delivery. He provides professional presentations and strategic conversation facilitation to leadership teams as large as 200+ people. He has been actively engaged with multiple executive teams in leading significant transformations including:

• A 25+ year relationship with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to lead and execute multiple transformations including commercializing shuttle operations, responding to the Columbia accident, enabling the Vision for Space Exploration, transitioning out of the Space Shuttle Program, moving to a multi-user spaceport, and using commercial launch services.
• A 25+ year relationship with NASA’s Launch Services Program to enable the continuous evolution to a customer-focused, learning-based organization.
• The development and execution of a project-based organization to deliver large-scale systems development for NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems.
• The transformation of the packaged-goods model to a mobile, social, and direct-to-consumer business model within the video-game industry.

In 2023, Tim was awarded a NASA Outstanding Public Service Medal in addition to the NASA Public Service Medals he was awarded in 2016, 2005, and 2001 for the partnership work with KSC. He is author of the book Transforming Organizations: Strategies and Methods and co-author of the book Inspiring the Leader Engineer: Instilling the Burning Desire & Confidence to Change the World.

Academic Setting. As described in the co-authored book Inspiring the Leader Engineer—Instilling the Burning Desire and Confidence to Change the World, Tim has led significant transformations:

• Securing over $2.7 million for practice-oriented research and training.
• Creating a balanced portfolio of undergraduate programs with significant annual touch points and impacts (e.g., increases in students’ practice of creativity (80%), innovation (78%), collaboration (79%), accountability (72%), and solution delivery (84%)).
• Creating the graduate, executive-style Engineering Management Cohort Program with 197 alumni, $5.8 million in revenue, 75% of the alumni having significant job responsibility increases, and significant return on investment for the partnering organizations (e.g., L3Harris, Kennedy Space Center, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Siemens, and Walt Disney World).
• Creating executive programs such as the Chief Information Officer learning community with industry partners for 10 years that generated over $1.3 million.
• Building philanthropic relationships in partnership with the Dean/Development Office to raise over $1.17 million.
• Building sustainable capability to enable consistent, repeatable delivery of the programs.

Tim teaches Technology Strategy, Project Engineering, and Engineering Management. He has taught strategy for the European School of Management and Technology. He served as the Editor of the Engineering Management Journal and is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Management. Read more in our interview with Tim, or check out his website at TimKotnour.com.