Chapter Leadership

Chapter Leadership Org Chart

2016-2017 Board of Directors

President - Jimmy Godard, MBA, PMP

Jimmy has 17 years of project management and consulting experience working in the Banking and Information Technology Industries. He is an instigator of process improvement and innovation with an unwavering determination to bring about results. He implements global changes in leading technology integration efforts for Infrastructure, End User Computing, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Divestitures. He contributes selfless and ethical leadership, leads diverse multicultural distributed teams worldwide, influences change, promotes cross-cultural communication, builds great talent, plans diligently, and executes relentlessly. He is an ITIL, and PMP certified. He earned a Computer Science degree at St. Thomas University in Florida. He moved to Oregon and later completed two master degrees respectively in Computer Information Systems, and Business Administration.

Jimmy previously served the PMI Portland Chapter as VP of Operations and as VP of Programs where he has brought constructive changes to the growth and betterment of the Chapter. His favorite hobby is coaching his children in the game of soccer. He currently coaches 3 soccer teams as part of the Sherwood Youth Soccer Club indoor and outdoor.

President Elect - Stephen Wilks, PMP

Stephen supports adopting new ideas and is a champion of process improvement. He loves to work with volunteers and to serve the Chapter and its membership. As the PMI Portland Chapter VP of Operations, he has helped bring in several new tools to provide more flexibility for the Chapter membership, and has supported the move to a new web infrastructure provider. Stephen is well-vetted in Information Technology, including Systems Programming, Contingency Planning, Capacity Planning, Helpdesk Level 3, Infrastructure Project Manager on Upgrades, Migrations, Cloud Support, Web Support and is a Lean Coordinator/Instructor.

Stephen is a U.S. Navy veteran, and has a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology Management. His hobbies change, but he loves experiencing new locations and working with his hands.

Past President - Saby Waraich, PMP

Saby has been serving PMI Portland Chapter as a Volunteer for the last 6 years in various positions, from helping at the registration desk to Director of Volunteers, and for the last two years on the Board as VP of Membership. He also co-hosts the PMI Portland Downtown roundtable.  Saby is an instructor for the PMI Portland Chapter PMP prep course. He enjoys working with people and brings enthusiasm, leadership and great customer service qualities to his current role. 

He is currently working as Senior Information Systems Manager at City of Portland, and as an adjunct Professor at Portland Community of College and University of Phoenix. Saby is a graduate of Portland State University with a Master's degree  in Engineering and Technology Management and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science & Engineering from Punjab Engineering College, India.

Secretary - Maria Schaeffer, PMP

Maria is a Program Director with Faithful+Gould, and has over 17 years of construction project management experience in high-tech manufacturing, commercial and government. She is currently volunteering as Construction Roundtable host as well as Assistant Secretary. Maria holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Hawai’i. 

VP At Large - Lisa McCaffrey, MBA

Lisa is an Army brat and a happy transplant to the Pacific Northwest. She completed her MBA in Operations and Technology Management at the University of Portland where she enhanced her skills to work with both IT and Operations to break down functional silos.  She has worked in manufacturing and with an athletic shoes, apparel and sports equipment company, combining her skills as a project manager and business analyst with her Lean training to create efficiencies within the IT and Supply Chain departments. Lisa also serves as Director of Student Chapters for APICS as she enjoys working with students as they are the future supply chain leaders.

Lisa loves her Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Maximus Happiness, Max for short. No pun intended. She enjoys hiking and exploring the beautiful state of Oregon.

VP of Finance - Carrie Hertel, PMP

Carrie works as a Director for an experiential learning program at Oregon State University. As a self-funded program, Carrie oversees the budgets and operational facets of the group.   She also sat on the board of directors for the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association for 7 years, another volunteer organization like PMI.

VP of Membership - Shannon M. MacDonald-Musson

Shannon Musson attained a bachelor’s degree and impressive certification profile supporting a ten-year position with the City of Portland in roles shaping her commitment and attention to detail.   She holds the Assistant Vice President of Membership position at the Portland Chapter of the Project Management Institute and with her bubbly enthusiasm, she successfully supports key initiatives of four consecutive years. 

VP of Marketing - Lokesh Aggarwal, PMP

I have worked as the chairman of the Parent Association Committee at my daughters high school.  During my chairmanship, PAC organized two social parties for the chilren and parents instead of one.  PAC supported and started two clubs in high school, Robotics and Debating clubs.  PAC organized maximum number of soup days that year.  That is once every two weeks, two parents got together and cooked delicious, healthy and nutritious soup that was served with bread to 40 high school students and teachers during the winter months.  PAC contirbuted $1,500 towards the scholarship for the best outgoing high school student attending university and $2,000 towards endowmend funds for opening buying or constructing a new high school building.  Currently I am volunteering and managing my daughters high school re-union registration event.  I am also serving as the Director of Sponsorship from last three years.

VP of Operations - Hakan Kutgun, PMP

 Hakan is a creative developer and implementer of new ideas with an ever curious and critical mindset. Upon attaining his degree in Aerospace Engineering from Middle East Technical University, he worked as a teaching assistant at the same department. Over a diverse engineering, academic and entrepreneur background, he has more than 10 years of PM experience spanning across startup, construction and defense projects with extensive experience managing large scale technical projects. He volunteered for social fundraising projects, acted as career mentor for vocational school students and keynote speaker in various universities over the years. As a diligent professional and licensed professional, he also served as a board member in occupational safety board of his former company in addition to his PM roles. He is a certified PMP, occupational hazards expert and lifeguard as well as a photography artist. Being an ever passionate learner, he is now pursuing a graduate degree in Portland State University’s Engineering and Technology Management Department.

VP of Outreach - Greg Spehar, PMP, ACP

Greg has been a member of the PMI community for over 10 years and served on the board for 2 years in 2007 and 2008. He was responsible for initiating the restructuring of the Outreach portfolio and was responsible for developing the directors that report to the VP of Outreach. With his leadership, the new Outreach Portfolio had a clear purpose and was able to perform within their new charter.

Greg is a Director at CorSource Technology Group in downtown Portland. He is helping CorSource manage a large software project. With his MBA, PMP, and ACP, Greg is helping large organizations develop and deploy Agile groups in a local setting and internationally.

VP of Professional Development - Ashish Gupta, PMP, ACP

Ashish is very passionate about developing a strong project management community in Portland area. He believes that project management office determines an organization strength and hence more active business community. As an Asst. VP of Professional Development, Ashish helped with developing ACP certification program.

VP of Programs - Titu Hariharan, PMP

Titu has enjoyed being a volunteer as part of the PMI Portland Chapter and would definitely like to continue to do so and be involved in this Chapter. She definitely looks forward to contributing as well as learning from this opportunity to serve our Chapter members. She enjoys meeting people, being the first line of contact and making it a pleasant experience for them to attend the Chapter meeting. Also, she has worked with a great team of volunteers and enjoys the camaraderie. The satisfaction and experience of having strived to do one’s best is a great incentive and for these reasons and much more, she enjoys her role on the PMI Portland Chapter Board.