If/When
Mar 1, 2025
CEO Conversations: Leadership Lessons in Collaboration
Show contributors: Bob Pragada, Christian Norris, Arthur Jones
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Leaders of global, multi-sector companies are tackling bigger, more complex challenges in our fast-evolving, highly connected world. During times of greater change and shifts, employees are looking to the C-Suite for even more direction and inspiration.
Research by Harvard Business Review reveals that for leaders to be successful now, they need to be versatile, resilient and empathetic to thrive in the relentless pace of global corporate organizations.
For this If/When podcast, we speak to two inspiring CEOs who embody these qualities and offer some of their experiences as leaders and collaborators. We explore the importance of key partnerships,* shared values, employee engagement and family support and learn how it's all helped shape them in their pivotal roles.
My name is Arthur Jones, and the guests for this episode are Bob Pragada, CEO of Jacobs since January of 2023 and appointed Chair of Jacobs Board of Directors the following September and Christian Norris, who became CEO at PA Consulting, a global innovation and transformation consultancy, in August 2023.
*Jacobs holds a 65% stake in PA Consulting, with the remaining 35% held by PA employees. Both Jacobs and PA operate as separate entities, each responsible for serving clients independently.
Tune in to find out
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Why are shared values and optimism key to successful partnerships?
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How do you inspire innovation and collaboration across all employees?
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Why are family and friends the best leadership incubator?
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How do we drive greater good for humanity through collaborative solutions?
About our guests
Bob Pragada is the Chair & CEO of Jacobs. In his early career, Bob served as an officer in the US Navy Civil Engineer Corps for nine years where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Bob’s naval career had many highlights, among which was his time serving the President of the United States as the Facilities Director at Camp David. This was followed by a 7-year tenure as Chief Operating Officer at Kinetics – a multibillion-dollar global provider of process solutions to the semiconductor and pharma-bio manufacturing industry. Bob joined Jacobs in 2006 and, over time, held several key senior management positions.
He returned to Jacobs in 2016 after serving as President and CEO of the Brock Group to take on the role of President of the Global Industrial and Buildings & Infrastructure lines of business and then Chief Operating Officer in November 2019.
Bob was appointed to his current role in January 2023 and has led the efforts of the company’s spin-off and merger of its Critical Mission Solutions and Cyber & Intelligence government services businesses with Amentum, a leading global engineering and technology solutions provider, to create a new, publicly-traded player in the government services sector.
Christian Norris is the CEO at PA Consulting, a global innovation and transformation consultancy. PA’s diverse teams of experts – strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers, and technologists – work across consumer and manufacturing, defense and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government and public services, health and life sciences and transport. PA accelerates new growth ideas from concept to commercial success. And they transform organizations to make innovation a reality.
Christian, an economist by training, joined PA in 2018 as a partner. At PA, he has led the firm’s health and life sciences sector, and its economics and strategy offering, partnering with clients to deeply understand their organisational strategy and achieve growth and high performance. Christian has been instrumental in shaping PA’s business strategy over the last five years, which has seen the firm secure exciting client work across its geographies, and growth through acquisitions.
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About If/When
In Jacobs’ series of interviews with some of the industry’s leading subject matter experts, inspirational leaders and trailblazers, we pull back the curtain on some of the hottest topics and trends across critical infrastructure, climate resiliency, water, advanced manufacturing, energy transition, sustainability, technology and artificial intelligence. We unpack the innovation, core values and close collaboration between Jacobs and its relationships with clients, partners and the communities in which it serves. We explore how we’re building social value across all that we do to create digitally enabled, science-based and sustainable solutions that drive climate response and human wellness.