Unlocking PMO Success: Expert Insights, Strategies, and Career Tips

Ways of Working

 

Join us for our expert PMO Roundtable discussion where experts share their tips and experience, with a focus on:

  • Types of PMOs
  • Benefits of PMO structures
  • Starting a PMO
  • Joining an established PMO
  • Successes, Failures & Lessons Learned
  • Developoment path & skills needed for PMO leaders
  • How to transition to a PMO role from other PM work
  • Resources to learn more

 

Moderator:

Kimberly Reed is PMI Pittsburgh's VP of Membership and SVP/Director of Dollar Bank's Enterprise PMO. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Information Systems with a focus on networking and a Master’s Degree in Internet Information Systems. Kim holds a PMP, PMI- ACP, Advanced Scrum Master, Professional Scrum Master, Certified Product Owner, Safe Agilist, LeSS certification and IT-CMF Certificated Professional certifications.

 


 

Guest Panelists:

Kenneth L. Rose is currently the Director of the Project Management Office (PMO) for Carnegie Mellon University Libraries. In his 34 years at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Kenneth worked as a member of the libraries' IT team with a focus on Linux systems administration and Storage Area Networks (SANS) for several years before advancing to a project management position in 2017. In 2019, Kenneth was promoted to PMO Director and is responsible for project management services with increasing complexity across the university including project planning, scheduling, budget and risk assessment throughout the project cycle. Kenneth is also a facilitator for the CMU Business Innovation Office's Project Management Center of Excellence (PM CoE). 

Kenneth earned his B.A. from Syracuse University in 2003 and his Juris Doctor from Duquesne University School of Law in 2010. He passed the PA Bar Exam in 2011, maintains a private practice and is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania in both State and Federal Court (Western District of PA). He recently earned his Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification from the Project Management Institute in September 2024.


Hussain Bandukwala is on a mission to inspire current and future PMO leaders to create strategic impact and position PMOs as indispensable assets within their organizations. As the PMOpreneur and CEO of Parwaaz Consulting, he brings over 20 years of expertise in project management and PMO leadership, specializing in setting up, optimizing, resurrecting, and rebranding PMOs at varying levels of maturity. His leadership has enabled clients to achieve 2x faster PMO setups, 73% improvement in strategic initiatives, 40% increase in PMO satisfaction, and 90% improvement in on-time project delivery. Recognized globally, he is a 2x World PMO Influencer of the Year Finalist (Top 8) by PMOGA, a PMI entity. His thought leadership has been featured by Gartner, Capterra, and other leading industry platforms.

As a 3x LinkedIn Learning instructor, Hussain’s courses have impacted over 160,000 PMO and project management leaders, equipping them with actionable strategies to excel in their roles. He is a sought-after speaker, frequently sharing insights at PMI events, industry conferences, corporate gatherings, and podcasts. Hussain’s dedication to elevating PMOs and project leaders makes him a dynamic and inspiring voice for anyone seeking to unlock the full potential of their project management functions.

Lee Guo is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with 20+ years experience in healthcare, nuclear, and automotive industry; leading cross functional groups and has delivered many long term and high value projects with safety, high quality, on-time, and on budget.

Currently, Lee is a project manager at UPMC International, responsible for implementing and integrating common global human resource (HR), electronic medical record (EMR), learning management system (LMS) platforms across many hospital locations in Ireland, Italy and Croatia. Recently, he was the project director to build and activate a brand new hospital in China. He built a PMO with multiple workstreams to deliver strategic program solutions to meet complex and politically sensitive business and strategic requirements.

Lee is actively involved with the Pittsburgh PMI chapter. As the Director of Global Outreach and Membership, his effort is to implement programs and initiatives to increase membership and member engagement. He established several scholarships: academic scholarships for the local university students in project management related degree; professional development scholarships for the chapter members to take courses and learn new skills to further advance their careers. He received the PMI Pittsburgh Chapter Volunteer of the Year award. In his spare time, Lee enjoys running and biking, especially in the scenic North Park. He also enjoys playing tennis with his son.

Lee received his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University; and MS degree in Mechanical Engineering and MBA degree from University of Michigan-Dearborn.

LaNita Whittle leads as a senior manager of the PPG Refinish project management office (PMO). She is a highly motivated, versatile and diverse leader with more than 15+ years of experience dynamically delivering high quality results globally through project and program management. LaNita has an uncanny ability to bridge the gap between technology and business to drive strategic roadmaps as well as be a change catalyst to support new ways of working through digital transformations.
 
LaNita, a Pittsburgh native, holds a bachelor’s degree of Science in Computer Engineering as well as a minor in Engineering Management from Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA). As a complement to her degree, she has obtained the following certifications: Project Management Professional (PMP), Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v2 and SAFe®5 Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM). She started her professional career in the field of Information Technology (IT) but has progressed through various roles in the fortune 200 company she has worked for over the past years.
 

In addition to her day-to-day work, LaNita serves as the sponsor for her company’s Black Employee Network (BEN). Also, she is a member of The Advanced Leadership Institute’s (TALI) ELP 2023 cohort as well as a previous member of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Furthermore, LaNita is a proud wife and mom of two wonderful children and loves spending as much time as possible with her family.

 
 
 
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Information

Type of category: Chapter Meeting Presentations

Type of activity: Ways of Working

Date: May 8th, 2025

Hour: 6:45PM to 8:00PM

Number of PDUs: 1

Price

Members: $5.00

Non members: $10.00

Location