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Project Zero
From first steps to best practices — stories that shaped project leaders.
Project Zero is a podcast for project managers — and the PM-curious — who want more than frameworks and certifications. Each episode features a project leader, highlighting first projects and the pivotal lessons that shaped their approach to leadership, collaboration, and delivery.
From unexpected missteps to breakthrough moments, these conversations reveal what it really takes to grow into a confident, competent project manager. It’s honest, insightful, and designed to help you lead better — whether you're managing your first task or your hundredth milestone.
Project Zero
S2 Episode 14: The Letter that Secured a High-Stakes Healthcare Position with Tom Cooper
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Host Alex Tuck interviews Tom Cooper, a program consultant at Rhino Healthcare Solutions. Cooper traces his path from JPMorgan operations and trading into software and project management, then into a Chicago-based green roofing startup driven by city stormwater mandates. His “Project Zero” involves excavating and repairing the King County Bus Terminal roof-park after barbecuing caused membrane leaks, then mitigating cybersecurity risk when their DOS-based leak detection system became a vulnerability, pivoting toward BACnet and a cloud-based alert process while persuading client IT teams and suppliers. He later moved into healthcare via hospital roof gardens, earned his PMP, joined TennCare after an ACA implementation lawsuit through a cold letter, and worked on pharmacy benefit management and data governance. Cooper emphasizes clear, adaptive communication, probing stakeholder “pain,” and AI tools improving requirements and prompting.
00:00 Season Two Kickoff
00:43 Tom’s Origin Story
02:43 Green Roofing Pivot
05:14 Project Zero Leak Crisis
08:10 Selling Risk Mitigation
09:44 Breaking Into Healthcare
12:13 Cold Letter Career Move
15:00 Big Healthcare Programs
17:09 Top PM Skill Communication
24:03 AI In Project Management
25:43 AI Beyond Work
29:16 Future Of Healthcare
31:35 Wrap Up And Contact
Connect with Tom Cooper
- Company Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rhyno-healthcare-solutions-inc/
- Personal Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasocooper/
Connect with Alex Tuck
- Personal LinkedIn: Alex Tuck
- Website: www.tuckconsultinggroup.com
- Company LinkedIn: Tuck Consulting Group
Email: alex@tuckconsultinggroup.com
