PM Scene: Faces and Places
November - December 2004
David Pells, New Publisher for the PM World Today
David L. Pells will assume the duties of Publisher of the PM World Today effective 1 January 2005. David Pells is an internationally recognized leader in the field of professional project management, with over twenty-five years’ experience in project management related positions. His professional experience includes a wide variety of programs and projects, including engineering, construction, transit, defense and high technology, and project sizes ranging from several thousand to ten billion dollars.
David is founder and former chair of the Global Project Management Forum (GPMF), the annual meeting of the leaders of professional project management societies around the world. Mr. Pells is a Fellow and past member of the Board of Directors of the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the United States. On behalf of PMI, David was also chair of the American Project Management Forums in Washington, DC during 1996-1999. David was founder and president of the Eastern Idaho chapter of PMI, president of the Dallas chapter of PMI, and founding member of PMI chapters in Austin, Fort Worth and San Antonio, Texas. He was founder and Chair of PMI’s first Specific Interest Group (SIG), Project Earth (now called the EnviroSIG) during 1990-1994. During 1993-1997, David was PMI’s liaison to the Russian Project Management Association, during which he traveled throughout Russia, participated in conferences, conducted lectures on project management, and held meetings with government and industry leaders. He was PMI’s liaison to the Ukrainian Project Management Association during 1995-1997. Mr. Pells was named PMI’s Person-of-the-Year in 1998 and a Fellow in 1999.
David is also a member of the American Society for the Advancement of Project Management (asapm), the newly formed USA national association which is a member society of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). During 2004, David served as chair of asapm’s Elections Committee. Since 1990, Mr. Pells has been a speaker at project management conferences in Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, South Africa and the United States. He was one of only four authors to have individual papers included in The Future of Project Management book published by PMI in 1999. Through his leadership of the GPMF during 1994-1999, David is well known to many leaders in the project management profession around the world. He has been a contributor to pmforum.org and PM World Today for many years.
Mr. Pells has a Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Washington and a masters in business administration from Idaho State University in the USA. He is married, has two children, and lives in Addison, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas.
Publishers Statement of Project Management Philosophy
I believe that modern project management is a powerful enabling and empowering technology, capable of transforming individuals, projects and organizations into more productive and successful entities. I believe the most exciting aspect of modern project management is its potential to transform projects and organizations, and that this transformational potential of project management is an extremely powerful concept, one that has not yet been fully recognized or utilized in our world. If the potential and power of the entire world of project management can be understood and harnessed, then nearly anything can be achieved. I believe current trends in the world of project management are movements towards that potential. This is what I called the Third Wave of Project Management in my January Editorial in PM World Today. I believe this Third Wave of Project Management is very bright and exciting, will change the world we live in, and can now begin.
Mission for PM World Today
The PM World Today should advance and facilitate the Third Wave of Modern Project Management by providing news and useful new information from around the World of Project Management to project management professionals, practitioners and stakeholders worldwide.
Editorial Plans & Objectives
The pmforum.org website is recognized worldwide as an objective window on the world of project management. This reputation and approach must be preserved. The reach and impact of this on-line resource, however, can be expanded. Therefore, objectives will include the following:
- To maintain the high quality and reputation of the contents of pmforum.org and PM World Today as objective sources of news and information serving the needs of project management professionals and stakeholders worldwide.
- To expand the content of both pmforum.org and PM World Today to cover more of the “World of Modern Project Management”, including more news and information from and for more geographic areas, industries and organizations.
- To increase distribution, reach and impact of both the pmforum.org website and the PM World Today e-zine beyond its current 1.5 million hits per month.
- To create an international editorial advisory board for both the pmforum.org website and the PM World Today, to ensure global perspective and input.
- To expand the editorial team to facilitate growth and quality of content, and therefore, impact on the World of Project Management.
- To increase emphasis on project management education, by providing news, information and access to institutions, organizations, individuals and networks who are involved in PM education around the world.
- To provide a source of PM related information to those conducting project management-related research throughout the world.
- To implement a continuous improvement process to incorporate design and functionality improvements, in order to make the website and e-zine more informative, useful and attractive to viewers.
- To promote and advance professional project management, in both depth and impact, to all regions, industries and people in need of better project management around the world.
These are big and exciting objectives. They can only be accomplished with the input and involvement of the professionals who live and work in the World of Project Management.