Adesh Jain
New Delhi, India
Adesh Jain is the Chairman of International Institute of Projects and Program Management (i2P2M), a not-for-profit company. In 2019, he founded the World Project Management Forum (WPMF) which was endorsed by 37 thought leaders from all the continents. Adesh is a former President and Chair of the Council of Delegates for the International Project Management Association (IPMA). Till date, he also happenes to be the only non-European to be President of IPMA in its history of 56 years. Adesh’s career includes 50+ years of project-oriented work, including projects for Litton Industries and Control Data Corporation in Canada from 1967 to 1973 in the field of artificial intelligence and supercomputing. In 1973, Adesh returned to India with the mission of making India strong in computing technology being primitive at that time. He held No. 2 position in one of the largest steel plants in India in IT and project management.
In 1975, Adesh was asked by Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited, the largest Indian Government engineering undertaking, to head their IT and Project Management services, and was the youngest CEO ever to head a division there. In 1979, under his leadership, a complete network of mainframe computers was established in the manufacturing units of BHEL with the corporate office. He became Chairman of the Heavy Engineering Computing Group of 22 major companies in 1982. In 1991, the President of India honored him with a Fellowship award for laying a strong foundation for the IT industry in India. He has since been conferred with 6 major awards in India, including the 'Gem of India' award.
Adesh started the Centre for Excellence in Project Management in 1992, and founded Project Management Associates (PMA), India - a-not-for-profit registered society in 1993. He was elected to the steering committee for the Global PM Forum in 1996 and received a Distinguished Contribution Award from the Project Management Institute (PMI®) in the USA in 1997. In January 1999, Adesh became the first non-European to be elected a Vice President of IPMA, serving three terms through 2004. He was elected President of IPMA for 2005 and IPMA Chair for two years beginning January 2007. In 2010, Government of Turkey released a postal stamp in his honor for his contribution in strengthening project management at a global level.
Adesh has addressed or trained over 100,000 people worldwide, has made over 40 keynote presentations, is author of the book “New Dimensions in Project Management” (1992) and Assorted Thoughts of Project Management (2014), and has authored over 50 articles on project management. In 2017, a book ‘Building a Project Oriented Society’ was released which covered his efforts since 1992 in nurturing a project mindset. Since 1999, Adesh has contributed significantly to modern PM in China where he has trained over 20,000 professionals. He is Honorary Chairman of the China Project Management Committee (CPMC). In 2001, he was invited to give a keynote presentation in the Great Hall of China at a UNIDO conference. Adesh has been a keynote speaker at major conferences in Abu Dhabi, China, Sweden, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Norway, Denmark and Turkey. For the last thirty years, he has organized and managed the Global Symposiums on PM in New Delhi, and he was the organizer and project manager of the 19th IPMA World Congress held in New Delhi in November 2005, the first IPMA congress outside of Europe and the largest IPMA congress ever held.
Adesh Jain has a BS in Mathematics and BS in Electrical Engineering from the most prestigious Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and a MS in Control Systems from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Adesh received the IPMA Honorary Fellowship award in October 2006. He received the Honorary Fellowship of Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) in 2011. In 2014, he received the Life Time Achievement Award for his contribution to project management for over 4 decades. Ge is often referred to as Bhishma Pitamah (the wise with authority) of Project Management as called by the former Petroleum Minister of Government of India.
Adesh lives in New Delhi, India but divides his time between Asia, India, Europe and the USA. He is married with 2 grown children. He is an avid golfer. He can be contacted at chairman@i2p2m.com.
Profile created 6 July 2021
