Description:
The “Project Manager” role can be diminished by some companies and their choice of organizational structure. One has to be careful to not get stuck in project manager roles that are (or perceived as) merely administrative, coordinative, or at best, middle management. In the Mavendog world, “project manager” is positioned as not only executive-level leadership, but also as a specialized skill and service. In our session, we would like to talk about the project manager role in your organization and industry. We also would like to discuss how to get your career unstuck by pursuing paths of project specialization and/or organizational leadership.
Learning Objectives
- What is the ideal project management career track for you?
- What company and market types lend themselves best to particular project career tracks and specialization?
- Does your current company or organization lend itself to the project management career and lifestyle? What are the barriers?
- When does consulting or freelance make sense?
Speaker: Jon Vordermark
Speaker Bio:
Jon Vordermark is the President and Founder of Mavendog, LLC, a management consulting and project leadership firm headquartered in Charlotte, NC. Jon has overall responsibility for Mavendog operations, thought leadership, and strategic growth. He is also responsible for client delivery excellence across all services lines.
Jon is best known for project recovery, having developed a reputation as the go-to leader for salvaging challenged and failing projects. With over 20 years of management consulting and project management experience, Jon led a variety of enterprise and global initiatives for Fortune 500 companies, primarily in energy, manufacturing, and technology. Notable clients include Duke Energy; SPX FLOW, Inc.; Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC); The Hartford; and Mecklenburg County.
Jon founded Mavendog to provide something he passionately believes the marketplace needs — project management as a specialized service and career, and a platform for the self-employed project leader. Mavendog is a company of proven, independent, consultant leaders for a client’s most complex, critical, and/or unconventional projects. In the Mavendog world, project managers are senior, sometimes executive-level leadership consultants, providing a specialized skill and service in the project and change management domain. Those services span large, program-level initiatives to short-term and/or part-time tactical (and fractional) needs.
Previously, Jon spent almost his entire career with The Revere Group, Ltd., a management consulting and system integration company out of Chicago, IL. He worked his way up to be a Director of Business Transformation. Revere was acquired by NTT DATA, Inc. in 2012.
Jon is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) through the Project Management Institute and is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. He grew up in an Army family, having bounced around the country (Texas; California; Washington; Colorado; and London, England). But Charlotte has been home since 2000, which we’re told is long enough to be considered a Charlotte native. He lives in the Queen City with his wife and son.
