PMFORUM Breaking News

The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) has announced that Veikko Välilä, president of the International Project Management Association (IPMA), will be the closing keynote speaker at the end of day two of the 2nd Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in August. The conference, subtitled “Leveraging Project Management for Business Success!”, will be held in the School of Management building on the UT Dallas campus in Richardson, Texas, USA during 18-19 August 2008. Mr. Valila will speak on Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008.

Veikko Välilä (pictured left), current IPMA president, is also Chairman of Project Management Association Finland and Practice Leader of Marsh Ltd., a global insurance and risk management organization. He has more than 25 years experience in project and risk management, gained in employment with PaloDEx Group, Kone Corporation, Industrial Mutual, Ministry of Trade and Industry, P&C Insurance and Marsh & McLennan. Veikko has been Scientific and Industrial Commissioner of Finland for China and Southeast Asia, and has lived and worked in nearly 50 countries. He was a co-founder of Soredex Oy and responsible for start up of new insurance underwriting operations in the London market for Hansa Industrial Insurance. Veikko has provided consulting and risk management services to many large corporations in the areas of power generation (including thermal and nuclear power), pulp & paper industry and large infrastructure projects (including harbor and motorway projects.) Veikko Valila will fly in from his base in Helsinki, Finland to speak at the UT Dallas Symposium.

Founded in 1967, IPMA is an international federation of national project management societies. The local societies serve the specific project management development needs of each country in its national language, while the IPMA as an umbrella organization represents them at the international level. The IPMA is a global organization with around 45 member associations spread across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. IPMA’s 4 Level Project Management Certification Programme continues to grow, with approximately 50,000 worldwide having achieved IPMA’s Certified Professional status. IPMA hosts International Symposia, Expert Seminars and its Annual World Congress. For more information, visit http://www.ipma.ch.

The 2 Day 2nd Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in August will focus on topics important to organizations and industries in North Texas. The Conference will include an Opening Keynote address by UT Dallas President David Daniel, several other keynote presentations during the two days, over 40 professional presentations, three panel discussions, a project management vendors’ exhibition, a Monday evening networking reception, and a closing keynote address.

With a reasonable registration fee and a full professional program, this event is expected to be one of the largest and most important project management conferences in Texas this year. For more general information, to register, or for vendor exhibition information, please visit http://pmsymposium.utdallas.edu/.

The symposium is being sponsored by the Graduate Program in Project Management at The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), in cooperation with the Dallas Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and PMForum, Inc. Both the PMI Dallas Chapter and UT Dallas are registered education providers with PMI, so attendees receive up to 14 Professional Development Units (PDUs) for PMP recertification.

The Project Management Program at UT Dallas provides application-oriented education for professionals with significant project, program or general management responsibilities. Established in the Executive Education Center in the School of Management, students have the option of earning a Graduate Certificate in Project Management, a Master of Science degree with an emphasis in project management, or a Master of Business Administration degree with project management emphasis. The UT Dallas PM program, originally developed in 1997, is accredited by the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and is a PMI Registered Education Provider (PMI R.E.P.). The program is taught by world-class faculty with a blend of industrial project management, consulting and teaching experience. Delivered both on campus and online, the program attracts students from across the United States and around the world. For more information, visit http://som.utdallas.edu/project/.

The PMI Dallas Chapter is a volunteer-based professional association dedicated to supporting the growth and development of project management practitioners, as well as building awareness of the project management discipline and its critical role in business and organization success. With more than 240,000 members in over 160 countries, the Project Management Institute (PMI®) is the world’s leading membership association for the project management profession. Founded in 1984 and with over 4,000 members, the PMI Dallas Chapter is one of the world’s largest PMI components. To learn more about the PMI Dallas Chapter and its service offerings, please visit www.pmidallas.org

Established in early 1995, www.pmforum.org was the world’s first website devoted to professional project management and continues to be one of the world’s most popular sources of project management news and information. PMForum, Inc. is a company formed to administer and grow the pmforum.org website. PMForum also produces the monthly online PM World Today eJournal where articles, case studies, papers and viewpoints by leading PM authorities from around the world can be found; free subscriptions are available at www.pmworldtoday.net