User:Peter Ellis/sandbox/International Project Management Association

DRAFT ARTICLE: International Project Management Association
The International Project Management Association is the international advocacy group for project management, with over 60 national members from across the world. Its original members were the first INTERNET.

History
In 1964, Pierre Koch of France, invited Dick Vullinghs from The Netherlands and Roland Gutsch from Germany to discuss the benefits of the Critical Path Method (CPM) as a management approach. The group was joined and chaired by Yves Eugene of Association Française d´Informatique et de Recherche Opérationnelle (AFIRO), and others. Arnold Kaufmann, professor of Applied Mechanics and Operations Research at the Mines ParisTech in Paris, suggested a name for the group: INTERnational NETwork or INTERNET.

In 1965, the group formed the International Management Systems Association (ASMA) based in Switzerland. In 1967, the group held its first International World Congress in Vienna.

In 1996, at the 13th World Congress in Paris, the advent of the internet telecommunications system led to the organisation renaming itself to “International Project Management Association”.

In 2002, the IPMA International Project Excellence Award was instigated.

Management
IPMA is governed under the law of Switzerland.

IPMA is governed through a Council of Delegates, an Executive Board, several Management Boards, working and project groups and a Secretariat. It is volunteer-staffed apart from contracted members of the Secretariat including a professional manager. The governing philosophy is to achieve consensus, rather than using a strict voting procedure, and using modern methods of international communication wherever possible rather than face-to-face meetings. The Council of Delegates meets every September and March, hosted by member associations.

The executive Board is headed by the President, currently Reinhard Wagner (Germany).

Certification
IPMA has a system of certification that can be used or aligned to by member organisations. Individuals can thus be assessed against an internationally recognised system using local qualifications. At the end of 2015, there were around 250,000 certified individuals worldwide, plus consultancies and organisations.

Categories
Category:Management organizations Category: Business and finance professional associations Category:Organisations based in Switzerland Category:1964 establishments in Switzerland