Nataliya Rutylo was born in Ukraine and grew up there. Her grandparent’s guidance and wisdom were a big part of her childhood. Her grandparents always had patience and time to listen and nurture her. Instead of telling her what to do, her grandpa always asked a series of questions that enabled her to identify the real issue and come up with a resolution on her own. “You just needed to talk out your confusion”, he would say to her. Nataliya’s source of energy is books and travelling. Nataliya attended school in Ukraine and the UK. She earned her Master’s in Social Psychology (2001), and her Bachelor’s in Business Economics (2003) in Ukraine. She also earned her diploma in Business Administration (2006) in the UK. She departed for London, UK in 2005, where she resided for 13 years. Nataliya then relocated to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Canada is her third country of residence. She relocated from the UK in 2018 with her wife and our small dog name Molly.

Nataliya got into Project Controls work because she always had been a data driven person and a problem solver. While studying in the UK she worked for one of the biggest retailers, as an assistant store manager. The business was undergoing its yearly routine inventory ritual and they were visited by the Product Manager from headquarters to assess stock distribution levels. He was using Oracle system on his laptop, ultimately with the goal to download stock data from the centralized database and reconcile with data from the internal local system. His first challenge was a BI module on his central system, the second one was merging code references on the internal system. As she observed his struggles and being tech savvy or tech curious, and always eager to help, they completed the exercise flawlessly. The next day she received a call from headquarters asking if she would be interested in applying for the role of Performance and Reporting analyst. That was her runaway to her 10+year career in Project Controls from retail to tech and onward into rail and nuclear energy.

She is passionate about her work because she loves what she does. She believes ambition and drive are two qualities that are essential for success and growth. A combination of quantity surveying skills, commercial acumen and a mind capable of financial analysis, with advanced knowledge of project management software packages allows her to drive her career in Project Controls and become an integral member of any project delivery team. Industries covered in her professional career are retail, high tech, rail, energy, and real estate. She has had the pleasure of participating on several exciting projects in the UK. A few memorable ones were: 1) High tech industry, Apple Inc, – new store opening in Covent Garden, London, UK. Where they undertook product testing and assessment of new technological developments to better assist customers in determining which product to purchase and provide feedback to software and hardware developers. She performed data migration and new software updates / installation. 2) Network Rail, Bristol UK (Bristol Area Signaling Renewal & Enhancement); Key driver – renewal of the asset due to its condition, they needed to provide an enhanced and improved signaling system.  Her responsibility was to track performance of delivery groups / functional teams for the schedule, risk mitigation, campaign plans on 2.3 billion programs. 3)The biggest project she has worked on is within the energy industry, Hinkley Point C Nuclear Construction, Bristol, UK; An estimated construction cost of between £19.6 billion to £20.3 billion. She managed and increase the effectiveness and efficiency of program / project controls services through improvements to each function as well as coordination and communication between support and business functions. She also improved the operational systems, processes, and policies in support of organization mission – specifically, support better management reporting, information flow for management, business process and organizational planning.

Nataliya’s current position is a Senior Project Control Consultant with Turner & Townsend and her current project is working on the Centre Block Rehabilitation, Ottawa, Canada. Located in the Nation’s Capital Region, Centre Block is one of Canada’s most recognized and iconic buildings and will be the largest and most complex heritage rehabilitation project within Canada. Very impressive!

Her inspiration is Albert Einstein, he is an enduring symbol of intelligence and hope. His genius changed the world in far-reaching ways that are still being understood today. Most of all, he has inspired us to drive innovation and ingenuity. His quotes “The important thing is to not stop questioning”. “Curiosity has its own reason for existing” is her career credo. Throughout her career, she has always been fortunate enough to work with many people who have inspired her. Many of them have helped her to provide clarity to her own strengths when those strengths may have been clouded or blurred to herself, which make each of them a special mentor. Experience with industry leading clients suggests that leading Program / Project performance increasingly requires leading data performance. Project managers can use this predictive information to make better decisions and keep projects on schedule and budget. A data-driven analytics approach enables teams to analyze the defined data to understand specific patterns and trends. She often says to project delivery teams, “my role is not to control you but help you to stay in control”.

Nataliya is new member to AACE and am look forward to bringing value and exposure to the AACE and all the benefits it has to offer. Sharing experiences with likeminded professionals, source from knowledgeable talent pool helps to expand Project Control horizons. With the professional world moving at a faster pace than ever before, standing still is not an option. Being associated with AACEI helps her continue to not only be competent in her profession, but also excel at it.

Actively pursuing professional development ensures that knowledge and skills stay relevant and up to date. It also allows her to be more aware of changing trends and directions in an industry. She is eager to participate in upcoming events and obtain AACE technical accreditations. No matter how unique you think your Project Control challenge is, someone within the AACE community has or is facing exactly the same challenge and therefore there is great benefits to being associated with the AACE and it’s wealth of professionals in which to network with. These professionals might be in the different part of the world, supporting different industries and working with different commodities, yet they are trying to solve the same puzzle. AACE is connecting professionals across the globe. Networking with AACE members is expanding views, developing leading industry best practices, and allowing us all to grow professionally. 

Working in the tech industry and embracing a “think different mentality” encourages her to keep pushing myself to advance. A narrative by Steve Job for an Apple commercial in 1997 motivates her to this day: “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” Keep pushing, keep changing the world around you