Robert J. Chapman

Robert Chapman has been lucky enough to work in South Africa, Malaysia, Holland, Qatar, France, the UAE, Ireland and Singapore during his 40-year career. He started life as an architect and subsequently moved to project management where he developed a lasting interest in risk management. He has supplied risk management consultancy services to companies within the rail, pharmaceutical, highways, aviation, marine, broadcast, heritage, water, energy, sport, nuclear, oil and gas, property development, construction and transportation industries.

Following the completion of his PhD focusing on construction risk management, he was invited by RIBA Enterprises Limited to write about his research which led to his first book ’Retaining Design Team Members, a risk management approach’. This was followed by ‘Simple tools and techniques for enterprise risk management’ published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd. It is on sale in forty countries around the world and recommended reading in universities internationally (including the USA, UK, Canada, Malaysia, Malta, India, Holland, Singapore and Australia). His next book entitled: The rules of project risk management, implementation guidelines for major projects, was published in 2014 by Routledge. It was purchased by NASA for their library. The second edition of this title was published in 2020. As with the first edition it includes a number of mini case studies of completed projects and their application of risk management to bring the subject alive. These books are recommended reading by the UK’s Institute of Risk Management. His book entitled ‘The SME Business Guide to Fraud Risk Management’ was published in April 2022.

His latest book 'Principal and Emerging Business Risks, a practical guide to their significance, identification and management through the lens of process mapping' was published in May 2026. Boards today face a paradox: more data than ever, yet less certainty. Risk reports grow thicker, but insight often becomes thinner. Principal and Emerging Risks is written to cut through that noise — giving boards a clear, structured, and actionable way to understand the risks that matter most.

He has written a number of seminal papers and provided risk management training in Scotland, England, Malaysia and Singapore focusing on project, construction and information technology risks. He lives with his wife in Berkshire and frequently visits other European countries.