Dear PMI Phoenix Chapter Members,

I hope you all had a great holiday season and are making steady progress on your 2024 professional development goals. It saddens me to inform you that I need to step aside as PMI Phoenix Board Chair due to health issues. Shane Cretacci is assuming the Board Chair role. I will become the Past Board Chair and support Shane as I can. I have been so honored to be your Board Chair and to be part of this incredible Chapter. 

Help me welcome Shane Cretacci who is stepping in as the Board Chair. Shane has been the Past Board Chair, having served as Board Chair from 2021 – 2022. In addition, Shane has been involved as a volunteer with the Phoenix Chapter since 2016, and has been on the Board of Directors in some capacity since 2018. He also received the 2023 Chapter Leader of the Year Award, so I know you are in good hands.

So far this year, we have been working with the Board of Directors to finalize our strategic objectives and 2024 budget so we can submit to PMI for our annual Chapter renewal. Each year our Chapter must be renewed, and this key milestone brings with it increased opportunities for collaboration and funding from PMI.

As we look ahead into 2024, our strategic goals include:

• Monthly Phoenix Fusion Networking for new members to join and connect with existing chapter members. These lively evening events are rotated around the valley in different locations, and are designed for those who've recently joined, those who've been with us for a while, and those curious about our community. These new events average 40-50 attendees each month.
• A Project Management Summit, again with our ASU PM Network and PMI Tucson Chapter partners, planned for this fall to have a virtual day of speakers and a full day of in-person speakers. Our goal is to expand the attendees and breath of topics - more to come!
• Social good events both in the Phoenix metro area as well as in areas around the state. Our goal is to expand our reach!
• Outreach to military members as they transition from military life into a project management career.
• Increase collaboration with our university and academic partners to engage students in project management principles, practices, and careers.
• Continue the programs and events that are foundational to our Chapter, such as our Breakfast Meetings, Study Group, and Mentorship Program, along with many others.

Watch our newsletter, Facebook page, Instagram, LinkedIn, and website for details on all these programs and events, along with much more. If you are interested in volunteering, click here.

To stay up to date on everything your membership provides you, keep an eye on our monthly calendar, as we add new speakers and events throughout the month.

Thank you for joining the PMI Phoenix Chapter. You are a valued member, and we want you to get as much benefit from your membership as you can. 

Stephanie Hanko

Outgoing 2024 PMI Phoenix Chapter Board Chair

Shane Cretacci

Incoming 2024 PMI Phoenix Chapter Board Chair

Manish grew up in India and graduated in business management. His career journey took him to various continents from Australia to Europe to finally North America. His initial career was in IT technology building and support software products, an interest in people and outcome of the technology initiatives brought him to a Project manager role. He got his PMP in 2010, followed by his PgMP in 2016.

When asked about challenges he faced when he moved into the PM role – he says the key challenges were about working across multiple functional teams and ensuring everyone is aligned with the focus and directions of projects and programs and that the team is humming like one unit and not multiple small teams working in silos. I have seen the journey from very waterfall-oriented stages of a project to more nebulous ways of Agile, where the focus is on sprint and PI planning and not so much about the stages and hard dates.

The profession has gone through an interesting overhaul, where the role of a Project management professional has evolved from being the one to “track “and “govern “to more about “Leading “and “helping “through servant-leadership mindset in recent times.

He enjoys the challenge of delivering value through execution framework involving Projects, Programs, and strategic initiatives, especially as the outcomes are time bound and measurable in most cases – which helps to see first-hand how an initiative helped a client or a business challenge being resolved.

He became a PMI Phoenix chapter volunteer during 2020 – started with the Corporate Outreach and Ambassador team. The ambition was to have PMI PHX chapter increase its footprint in the corporate landscape of the valley , however the pandemic made it very hard to have any in-person meeting or gathering to generate real interest , as most companies were grappling with the fallout of the pandemic on their balance sheet as well as employees .  In his most recent stint as a volunteer, he has been part of the membership team and helped ensure blog posts like these are created as well as helped organize the monthly networking events which started during the fall of 2023.

His advice to new members is that volunteering is a fantastic opportunity to connect with volunteers and professionals who have diverse backgrounds and perspectives on everything related to Project Management and more. Don’t hold back if you want to give back to the profession and to the community of these amazing human beings who are making such a big difference in the world.

In his own words “It’s amazing to see the diversity of our profession, various industries from software to semiconductor to construction which employs amazing professionals like us and the challenges each industry faces which are solved by the profession of Project management.”

On the personal front, he is married and has two kids with his wife Tina and a dog named Uno. He loves to play tennis when it is not too hot (anything below 110°) and travel to novel places whenever possible.