An accomplished educator, author and public speaker, Dr. Ballard is currently a member of the construction engineering and management program faculty at UC Berkeley.
Glenn entered the construction industry in 1976 as a pipefitter’s helper on a petrochemical project in the Houston Ship Channel, moved from there to area engineer, then Manager of Productivity Improvement at a division of Brown & Root.
In 1982, he joined Bechtel at the Chevron Refinery in Richmond, California, was subsequently assigned to Bechtel’s San Francisco home office responsible for quality and productivity improvement in Bechtel Petroleum.
Dr. Ballard began his on project management consulting business in 1987, developed the Last Planner System in a series of pilot projects over the period from 1991 to 1998, began a 21 year-long graduate-level seminar at the University of California in 1989, became a full-time employee at Cal in 2005 and the took on the position of Research Director at the university’s Project Production Systems Laboratory which he co-founded with Professor Iris Tommelein. Dr. Ballard also co-founded the International Group for Lean Construction in 1993 and the Lean Construction Institute (USA) in 1997. He has a BA in Liberal Arts from St Johns College in Santa Fe NM, an MBA in Operations Management from Holy Names College in Oakland, CA and a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Birmingham (UK).
He retired from Cal in 1989 but continues as a Research Associate of the Project Production Systems Laboratory.