Félix Valdez, PMP, was a charter member of the PMI Lima Perú Chapter and was its first President. He is currently a consultant and trainer in project management. He teaches post graduate courses in project management at the Pontificia Universiad Católica del Perú, and at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas.  This interview was conducted in October 2007 by PMForum International Correspondent José Machicao in Lima.

PMForum: Hi Felix, welcome to PMForum. You founded PMI Lima Chapter, how it was the experience? How did it begin?

Félix Valdez: It all started back in 1994 when I was working for Cosapi S.A., a Peruvian EPC company.  A colleague was receiving the PMI Network monthly, and I got interested by the strong growth of PMI, which at that time was about 30% yearly. I discovered that the PMI had a Project Management Body of Knowledge that could be used to help in all kind of projects.  So I started to look for a local representative or local courses here in Lima, but we had none.  So, we started sending faxes, and I remember talking to some friends from EPC and IT companies about the need to start a local chapter. 

I combined my business trips with conferences about PMI and the importance of project management, so little by little we got to have about 30 members to have the "Potential Chapter" designation.   We chartered in October 1999, and I flew to the PMI Global Conference in Philadelphia to receive the charter documents. We spent lots of hours, but it was really fun! I must have made more than 50 presentations at different companies, universities, and other institutions.

PMForum: How was your personal experience with project management?

Félix Valdez: My personal experience was in construction projects. I started as a project controls engineer for the construction of an oil terminal in northern Peru.  We were using mostly time and cost management tools, with some formal change control processes.  I later moved lead the engineering department, and the problems there were totally different: executing many projects at the same time, with both internal and external clients.  At that time, we decided to apply for the ISO9000 certification, so it was a good opportunity to put in writing many project management processes for both the engineering and the construction projects. 

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