We’ve accomplished great things as a society—many of these accomplishments, once thought impossible by the greater population.
The world is able to do things like successfully launching rockets into space, developing and implementing new financial technologies across the world, and creating vaccines in the span of a year thanks to some of the most exceptional project managers and project management teams in the field.
Behind almost any big project is a project manager, or several. Someone needs to keep a bird’s eye view on project progress, be the go-between for different teams, and keep things moving forward as planned. Despite the vague-sounding nature of these responsibilities, they are some of the most essential aspects contributing to a project’s success.
Acknowledging the people behind the projects
Consider the following project managers and project management achievements that have been recognized by the Project Management Institute (PMI) itself:
Moffitt Cancer Center EPM: Winner of the 2021 PMI PMO of the Year Award
Larger enterprises have Project Management Offices, or PMOs, that oversee project management standards throughout the company. The winner of the 2021 PMI PMO of the Year Award is a project management office that was founded in 2018 to help Moffitt Cancer Center standardize its project management methods on a system-wide scale.
Their purpose, according to PMI, is to help “support the organization’s strategic priorities,” and help plan and execute big projects with a focus on PMI principles and teachings.
The Director of the Moffitt Cancer Center Enterprise Project Management (EPM) is Christine DeVol, MBA, PMP, CSM, ITIL, Prosci Cert. Christine has almost two decades of experience in professional project management and has various licenses and certifications, including the Agile Hybrid Project Pro Micro-Credential from PMI.
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez: Winner of the 2021 PMI Fellow Award
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, PMP (Project Management Professional®), is a “thought leader, practitioner, and professor in project management,” noted PMI. In addition to his impressive literary contributions to the project management world such as the Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook, Antonio is also the former Chairman of PMI.
Currently the Director of the Program Management Office at GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines, Antonio is also a highly sought-after speaker at global events and conferences of all kinds. Some other notable achievements include being recognized by Thinkers50 for his impact in the project management industry, and founding (or co-founding) several initiatives such as Projects & Co., Strategy Implementation Institute, and more.
Yanping Chen, MD, PhD, PMP, PMI Fellow
Currently President of the University of Management and Technology (UMT), Yanping Chen also served on the PMI Board of Directors from 2005 to 2010. Before her involvement with the Board, Yanping helped facilitate a collaboration between the Chinese government and PMI in the 1990s in order to roll out the Project Management Professional® exam in China.
Yanping is co-author of the textbook Principles of Contracting for Project Management and has dozens of publications to her name. Much of her work with PMI has revolved around higher education, and in the early 2000s, she helped establish PMI’s Registered Education Provider program.
Nguyen Si Trieu Chau: Winner of the 2020 PMI Rising Leader Award
Nguyen Si Trieu Chau (LIMC, PfMP, PgMP, PMP, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA, PMI-RMP, PMI-SP, CAPM, DASM, DASSM, DAVSC, IPMO-E, PMO-CP, PSM-I, PSM-II, PSPO-I), is a young leader in the world of professional project management with over a decade of experience at organizations such as Unilever and Nestlé.
In addition to his experience working as a project manager for these large enterprises, Ngyuen is the Founder and CEO of Atoha Institute and Co-Founder and Project Director of XtayPro, offering training services, development strategies, and more on the subject of project management and related topics.
The bottom line
These impressive examples of project management prowess only scrape the surface. Think of any major organization and its memorable accomplishments, and a project manager was surely involved.
Next time the impossible seems to happen, like a series of satellites traveling around the globe in a straight line or a seamless integration between two merging organizations, consider who the driving force was and how they made it all work!
