Featured Interview: Paul C. Dinsmore

Paul C. Dinsmore, is President and principal consultant for Dinsmore Associates, an international project management and organizational change consultancy with global offices based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Paul is a globally recognized author, expert and authority on the subject of modern project management. A long time member of the Project Management Institute (PMI®), Paul has been honored with PMI’s Distinguished Contributions Award as well as the prestigious Fellow Award.  He is one of the early PMPs -- Project Management Professionals (PMP number 129) certified by the Institute. Paul participated as a member of the PMI Standards (PMBOK) and Research Committees, is a former director of PMI’s Educational Foundation, and is founder and counselor of PMI Chapters in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil. Paul Dinsmore works as consultant and keynote speaker in South America, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. He is a graduate in engineering from Texas Tech University and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and Postgraduate in Management by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo. 
He is the author of 17 books published in the United States, Japan, Brazil and Korea. Among them: How to Become a Project Management Professional; Winning in Business with Enterprise Project Management; Creating The Project Office – A Manager’s Guide to Leading Organizational Change, and the AMA Handbook of Project Management. 

Editor’s Note: Paul Dinsmore is one of the world’s most entertaining and popular authors and speakers on the subject of modern project management. A Fellow of the Project Management Institute (PMI®), he is also a Global Advisor to PMForum, a PM Ambassador™ and an Advisor to major corporations and government organizations in North and South America.  This interview was conducted in February 2009.  Part II of the Interview with Paul Dinsmore will be entitled “The Light of Project Management: Consulting, Writing and Teaching the World about PM”, with Paul’s responses to questions about his founding of Dinsmore Associates, a few more of his career assignments, books he has written, courses taught and experiences over the last 30 years.  We expect to publish Part II in the April 2009 edition of
PM World Today.

PM World Today (PMWT):  I think that you are one of the world’s best known project management authors and authorities.  But I don’t think so many people know about your interesting life and experiences.  So I thought we could begin our interview with some history.  Where are you from originally?  What is your nationality?

Paul Dinsmore:  San Diego California is my birthplace, and I was raised in Fort Worth, Texas. I maintain US citizenship.

PMWT:Where did you attend university and what was your field of study? 

Dinsmore:  Electrical Engineering was my choice of study and I graduated from Texas Tech University in 1964. I completed the graduate course in Business Administration at Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo in 1969.  And finished  the Advanced Management Program for executives at Harvard Business School in 1984.

PMWT:Did you find yourself in a project-related organization or position right out of college.  What was your first professional position, with which company, and when was that?

Dinsmore:  Overseas adventure beckoned me as college graduation neared, so I signed up for a two-year Peace Corps stint.  After a crash course in Portuguese at New York University,  I was whisked off  to Brazil where my engineering training  was put to test  in a rural electrification project in the State of Sao Paulo.  The rural electric cooperative had already been formed by a state agency that had assigned a delightful and competent technician, Mario Pagliarini, to the project.  Mario and I were tasked with taking power to 100 farmers surrounding  Sao Joao de Boa vista, a town of  60,000 people, situated a four-hour bus-ride  east of the bustling State Capital of Sao Paulo.   The distribution posts were beginning to be planted by the line crews into the red-clay-yet-fertile soil that predominates the hilly countryside around the town.  I helped with the overall planning, surveying the right of ways and supervising the crews as they put in the wooden eucalyptus poles and strung the aluminum lines through the hills and valleys.  To my delight, the project was finished before my time was up, and was crowned with a glorious night-time inauguration  at the coop's president's farm, under the lights  powered  by  the new rural electric system

Contrary to exotic images associated with Brazil, I wasn't faced with fighting off giant boa constrictors, tropical panthers or restless  natives     Far from the Amazon, I was located in a tranquil, agricultural-based town with a simple yet above-average living level  by national standards.  The Southern half of Brazil, where Sao Joao da Boa Vista is located, looms far superior to  the still-struggling  rain-forest dominated Northern part.  Even then, roads were generally paved, except for those meandering into the rural areas, and there was a thriving commerce in the town.  But further development in the lush surrounding countryside was held back by lack of power and light.  That's where I had the privilege of helping the members of the electric coop upgrade their farms and boost both their productivity and living standards.

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