2020 IPMA Individual Awards Young Project Manager of the Year Finalists

Have you ever thought, how you would feel to be awarded? More than that to be internationally recognized as an outstanding young project manager, an exceptional leadership talent, and professional? Are you often known in your team, in your organization?
Since very early ages, we learn to compete to show we are the best ever but do we feel it from inside out? Sometimes it is not only an external competition but an internal one. It gives us great joy when we see that we are awarding each year outstanding young project managers. Those are beautiful and humbled people who feel and know that we can achieve more together as a team and lead by example, where we had the following and inspiring reaction while communicating they were finalists: “I will pass this fantastic news on to my team. I’m sure they will be over the moon with what we as the team have achieved! ”
In this challenging year, we are happy to share with you that we had more applicants, we had more countries in the run, and we are delighted to have three finalists who delivered great projects and had a great outcome. What assessed their achievements as project managers in this category at an earlier stage of their career is that they were able to be outstanding in this process! Our judges evaluate our applicants. Besides having to demonstrate a high level of competence and innovation in project management, the assessment is based on the competencies described in the Individual Competence Baseline V4.0 (ICB4).
After this small reflection, IPMA Young Crew is pleased to announce and present to you our finalists. This year was challenging due to all the situations and because all applicants were outstanding!

The first finalist is Andrea Blomerus who was leading a project that aimed to deliver the upgrading of parks within Area 3, Cape Town, South Africa which encompassed the installation of infrastructure such as play and outdoor exercise equipment to promote informal recreation and play to help develop the youth in previously disadvantaged areas. The park developments also included activities for adults and the elderly such as running/walking tracks and passive areas for relaxation. Securing the parks with fencing was needed in some cases. This required resources, skills, and project management to be applied as these areas are challenging to work in. Her background in landscaping also assisted in this regard.

The second finalist is Akshay, who has 12 years of Project Management experience and has won the “Young Project Manager Award 2019” during Project Manager’s Global Summit. He led & won the Gold in IPMA Project Excellence Award 2019 under Mega Projects Category by demonstrating the best global project management techniques used in his NRSS29 Project; for which the CEO, Sterlite Power also awarded him. He was previously part of the project management team of Reliance Infrastructures Limited’s 4X300MW Rosa Thermal Power Project, which won 1st Runners Up Prize for Project Management in Large size Project category during the PMI India Project Management National Conference 2013.

The third finalist is Rosanna Sibora -“I am a passionate entrepreneur and change-maker with a high level of constructive nonconformity, who fell in love with the IT universe”. This combination of skills allowed her to fulfill her role as the project manager and product owner, scrum master, and facilitator within the project. To successfully deliver a high-quality product, Rosanna developed her product development process. ALPHA is an internal product supporting colleagues within the whole product lifecycle, built in a co-creation with users. The ALPHA statistics, high user acceptance, and users’ project engagement confirm the importance of user-centric product development.

Which of our finalists will win the gold will be announced at the virtual IPMA Global Awards Ceremony on 31 October 2020.