Every capital project runs on three variables: time, budget, and quality. Deliver on all three and the project closes the way it was meant to. Miss on any one and the consequences are severe. Most megaprojects fall short on at least one.

Lucretia Löscher has spent her career inside that triangle. She is COO of Big Dutchman, and was previously COO and Executive Board Member at thyssenkrupp Uhde. Before that came senior leadership roles at Siemens, Siemens Energy, and OSRAM. Determined to evaluate the AI opportunity for her company rather than take consultants at their word, she completed MIT xPRO's AI for Senior Executives program. Outside the boardroom, she is an adventure athlete and mountaineer who has climbed Aconcagua and Vinson Massif and completed the Greenland Crossing.

In this episode of Earn The Right Podcast, Lucretia joins Apoorv Agarwal to discuss why the triangle of optimization breaks down in capital projects, what AI can do to hold it together, and what her team at thyssenkrupp Uhde proved when they standardized their core plant technology.

Lucretia explains how AI can accelerate change management analysis, improve quality control at the supplier site, and manage the document overload that derails large engineering projects. She makes the case that the right starting point is always a concrete business problem, not a technology looking for an application. And she shares why the EPC industry's assumption that every project must be built from scratch is holding the sector back. She also draws on her experience in the mountains to explain what endurance, listening, and reading the unsaid can teach any leader managing a team under pressure.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

• Why the engineering, procurement, and construction phases create compounding risk when they overlap

• What the mountain teaches about managing risk when the consequences are real

• How AI and standardization work together to compress the EPC project lifecycle

ABOUT LUCRETIA

Lucretia Löscher is Chief Operating Officer of Big Dutchman. She was previously COO and Member of the Executive Board at thyssenkrupp Uhde, one of Germany's leading engineering companies in large-scale chemical plant construction and decarbonization technologies. Before that, she held senior roles at Siemens Energy, Siemens, and OSRAM across strategy, transformation, and industrial operations. She studied business and law, completed management studies at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and ESCP in Paris, and holds a certificate from MIT xPRO's AI for Senior Executives program. Outside her corporate career, she is 1st Deputy Chairwoman of the Munich district of the Bavarian Red Cross. She is also an adventure athlete and mountaineer who has climbed Aconcagua and Vinson Massif and completed the Greenland Crossing.

ABOUT EARN THE RIGHT PODCAST

How do the world's most impactful leaders think, decide and build? Through unfiltered conversations, the Earn The Right Podcast takes listeners inside the rooms where the hardest choices are made: from building billion-dollar companies to navigating doubt, reinvention and change. The show is hosted by Apoorv Agarwal, an AI scientist, entrepreneur (Text IQ, acquired 2021) and Columbia PhD, who has advised Fortune 500 leaders. For founders and decision-makers developing the future, this is your front-row seat to how the best earn the right to lead.

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