From the Chess Club to Campus, Larry Pickett Brings a Competitive Edge

Growing up in Pittsburgh, Larry Pickett spent his summer days at the neighborhood pool. When the lifeguards broke for lunch, he’d dash across the street to the Carnegie Library to pore over books until the pool reopened.

“I’ve always been a big reader,” Pickett said. “I especially was a fan of Marvel superhero comic books. That’s what fueled my imagination.”

His intellect was sharpened by another hobby. 

“I grew up in a community where everyone played chess,” said Pickett, a longtime member of the Pittsburgh Chess Club. “It taught me the value of critical thinking. One wrong move can put you on the defensive for the rest of the game instead of advancing your strategy. That happens in business all the time.”

Those early experiences continue to shape Pickett’s work at Carnegie Mellon University. As a senior partner enablement consultant in the Business Innovation Office, Pickett leads the project management, change management and process improvement Centers of Excellence (CoE).

A Westinghouse High School alumnus, Pickett was added to the school’s Wall of Fame in 2023, joining luminaries such as jazz musician Billy Strayhorn and civil rights activist Bill Nunn Sr. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Clarion University, a master’s degree from Duquesne University and an MBA from California University of Pennsylvania. Clarion and California are now part of PennWest University, where Pickett serves on the Council of Trustees.

Pickett spent more than 20 years in the corporate world, including roles at PNC Bank and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. As a consultant with TeleTech Holdings Inc., he managed projects in Europe, Canada, Mexico and the Philippines. Those roles deepened his passion for efficiency, leading him to become a certified project manager and a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

“It has nothing to do with karate,” Pickett said with a laugh. Lean Six Sigma is a concept built around using data to make a process better. A Master Black Belt is the program’s highest level of certification, a senior designation that requires years of practical field experience.

In March 2018, Pickett joined CMU to direct projects that support process improvement and business innovation. He views the university as a “modern-day Athens,” where the excitement of being around great thinkers mirrors the intellectual spirit of ancient Greece.

During the pandemic, Pickett collaborated with the CMU Delphi Research Group on COVIDcast, a public repository of real-time, geographically-detailed indicators of COVID-19 activity in the U.S. The experience reinforced a lesson he continues to share in his CoE classes: the importance of distinguishing between symptoms and root causes.

“Symptoms would be a cough or a scratchy throat, but the root cause is the flu,” he said. “A lot of the analysis we do in class is trying to understand the root cause of a problem.”

Since 2023, the Centers of Excellence have trained hundreds of staff members in project and change management. Pickett credits this success to strong executive sponsorship, particularly from Stan Waddell, vice president for IT and chief information officer.

“He has supported me every step of the way,” Pickett said. “He believed in my vision and gave me the autonomy to transform the CoE from a dream into reality.”  

Pickett’s goal is to create consistency and a common language across a decentralized institution. In his training sessions, he intentionally seats participants with people from other departments to encourage cross-campus networking. 

For Pickett, education is about more than content — it is about the ability to implement what is learned.

“When people take a course at the Center of Excellence, I want them to walk away with a clear understanding of how to apply what they’ve learned,” he said.

Pickett’s philosophy of leadership is shaped as much by chess matches and library books as by boardroom experience. He often reminds emerging leaders that authority is borrowed, not owned.

“Success depends on how well you interact with others and earn their support,” he said. “A project succeeds because of the team. If it doesn’t, don’t point fingers. Take accountability. That’s what leadership is all about.”