President's Message & Press release

Dear PMI Buffalo Members,

It’s an honor to be elected as the 2025/2026 President of PMI Buffalo, and I’m truly excited
about the year ahead. A little about myself: I’m originally from Hamburg, NY. After high school, I
joined the Navy as an Electronics Technician and proudly served for over 10 years. Following
my military service, I remained in the Washington DC Metro area, working as a Project Manager
on various government contracts. In 2020, I returned to Western New York and have since
worked as a Project Manager for Centene Health, DelawareNorth, and currently serve as a
Portfolio Manager at Kaleida Health.

What excites me most for 2025 with PMI Buffalo is the energy and enthusiasm of our board.
Over the past few months, the board has come together and developed four key strategies to
guide our work this year:

1. Increasing membership and engagement
2. Marketing PMI offerings beyond the PMP certification
3. Increasing volunteer recruitment and retention
4. Enhancing cohesion within the board of volunteers

How does this impact you as a member? Our goal to increase membership and engagement
means that we want YOU to be actively involved. Whether you’re interested in joining one of our
committees, volunteering at events, or sharing your feedback, we believe your participation will
have a meaningful impact on shaping the chapter’s activities and direction. Your involvement is
vital to making PMI Buffalo stronger and more connected.

We’re also committed to supporting your career development. Have you considered pursuing a
PMI certification in the coming year? We’ll be hosting an event to provide you with more
information about PMI certifications and the resources we have planned for 2025 to support
your professional growth. This event will be a great opportunity to discuss your certification
goals and how PMI Buffalo can guide you on that journey.

Additionally, we have some exciting dinner events planned with engaging topics that will help
you stay informed on the latest trends in project management. But we’re not stopping
there—we’re also eager to use our project management expertise to support local nonprofits
and give back to our community. We’d love for you to get involved in these initiatives and to hear
your thoughts on how we can better serve you and the community. Together, we can make PMI
Buffalo a hub where project management professionals can continue to grow, learn, and thrive.

A key part of our strategy is enhancing the cohesion within our board of volunteers. We
recognize that a unified, collaborative board is essential to the success of our chapter, and we
are fully committed to strengthening that foundation. We’ll focus on improving communication,
ensuring clear roles and responsibilities, and facilitating regular check-ins and team-building
activities. By fostering stronger internal relationships, we will be able to better serve your needs
and drive the chapter’s initiatives forward. When our leadership team works cohesively, it sets a
positive example for the entire chapter, helping us achieve our collective goals.

We also encourage you to visit our updated website, where we’ll be adding more content
throughout the year. You’ll find information on upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and features about our members. It’s all part of bringing our ideas to life and making PMI Buffalo a more dynamic and interactive community.

Finally, I want to express my sincere gratitude to our outgoing board members for their
dedication and hard work. They have played an instrumental role in helping ensure a smooth
transition, and their contributions have laid a strong foundation for PMI Buffalo’s future. I am
excited to build on that momentum and look forward to working with all of you in the year ahead.
Here’s to a successful 2025! I look forward to the journey we’ll take together and to making PMI
Buffalo a place where we can all grow and succeed.
As we move forward, let’s remember this quote by Peter Drucker:
"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

Together, we can create the future of PMI Buffalo — one that is full of opportunity, collaboration,
and success.

Warm regards,
Vince McKeown
President, PMI Buffalo Chapter