Honorary Global Advisor
Thomas Walenta, PMP, PgMP
Fellow, Director, Project Management Institute (PMI)
Former President, PMI Frankfurt Chapter
Frankfurt Area, Germany
Thomas Walenta has worked on projects and programs since 1974 and selected Project Management as his sole career profession in 1988.
Currently, he is a Coach and Mentor for Project Management Professionals and companies. He worked for IBM where he gained experience with setting up complex programs, running PMOs, and turning around troubled projects for IBM clients in diverse industries and geographies. In parallel to his work, he has acted as a project management volunteer since 1998, as PMI Chapter President, and PMI Board Director, and received the PMI Fellow award in 2012. He is a frequent speaker at global conferences and published in several media. In 2017, he received a diploma qualification as a non-executive director from IoD, UK, which complements his 6 years as a director on PMI’s Global Board.
Thomas Walenta’s background is more than 49 years of working on projects, 34 years leading projects, and 19 years in charge of programs. He initiated and ran PMOs, programs, and projects for customers of IBM in system integration, software, outsourcing, and strategy. He delivered turnkey projects, rolled out SAP to European country organizations, engaged and delivered large outsourcing contracts, and integrated the full portfolio of IBM solutions in a key account role. Recently, he supported a German manufacturer in establishing organization-wide portfolio management and setup of a hybrid PMO, serving agile and traditional projects. His cultural experience gained is from government, insurance, banking, electronics, industry products, and automotive industries as well as geographically from most European countries, Russia, Japan, India, and the US. He visited about 100 countries.
In parallel, Thomas Walenta built a career as a volunteer at the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 1998. He led the PMI Frankfurt Chapter for almost 8 years and served on the global Board of Directors twice (2006-2008 and 2017-2019). His volunteer career reached a milestone in achieving the PMI Fellow Award in 2012, which was granted to only 82 individuals in more than 30 years. From 2011 to 2016 he served on PMI's Ethics Review Committee, dealing with ethics complaints and violations. He is a member of PMI since 1992 and of GPM (IPMA) since 1995.
In addition to working for IBM and volunteering for PMI, he has driven his own business since 2001, teaching project management at two Universities as well for clients since 2002 and taking engagements for strategic project management consulting. He is a professional speaker, was invited to more than 90 conferences and webinars globally, and published articles and book chapters about project management topics. He is one of the few global advisors for the independent PM World Journal (http://pmworldjournal.net/team/global-advisors-pm-profession/). Mr. Walenta proudly coaches and mentors about 15 individuals around the world.
To view a presentation about Mr. Walenta’s career, go to https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thwalenta_presentation-about-my-pm-career-to-pmi-moscow-activity-7119608532043214848-bfKr
Thomas is based near Frankfurt, Germany and can be contacted at thwalenta@online.de or www.linkedin.com/in/thwalenta/
Profile updated November 2023