2024 Annual Conference Speakers
Speaker: Karla Eidem, PMP
Karla Eidem, PMP, is the Managing Director for PMI’s North America region. With a strategic mindset, leadership prowess, and dedication to the community, she leads the regional strategy design and execution, expanding PMI's impact on organizations, individuals, and communities to maximize project success and create a better world.
Prior to her role as Regional Managing Director, Karla served as PMI’s North America Regional Operations Manager. In this role, she was integral in developing and executing strategic initiatives to grow PMI’s reach and deepen its impact on the practitioner and chapter community across the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. She also participated in countless speaking engagements, media interactions, and mentoring opportunities, sharing insights that resonated with individuals and organizations across the region, fostering a deeper sense of community and furthering a culture of continuous improvement.
Karla's professional experience spans multiple disciplines, regions, and industries, including project management leadership roles in financial services and healthcare with organizations like HSBC and Sanford Health. She has successfully led regional teams and enterprise-wide projects and has a proven ability to translate organizational strategies into action plans that improve operational efficiency. She is also passionate about giving back through volunteering and served as a chapter leader for the PMI Sioux Empire, South Dakota Chapter.
She is originally from Manila, Philippines, and speaks English, Filipino, Spanish, and Ilonggo (one of over 170 dialects in the Philippines). Karla now resides in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with her husband, two stepsons, and American Eskimo dog. She loves spending time with her family and friends and enjoys traveling, brush lettering, dance, and ice fishing.
Speaker: Samad Aidane, Ph.D, PMP
Samad Aidane, Ph.D, PMP, is a Project Management practitioner, researcher, consultant, and trainer with over 29 years of industry experience that spans telecom, finance, health care, and government technology implementation projects.
Samad holds a Ph.D. for his research on equitable stakeholder engagement practices in project management. He is the author of Equitable Project Delivery: A Practical Guide for Project Managers. Samad is a lecturer on Project Management in the MBA program at the University of Colorado, University of Washington, and Northeastern University.
Samad has provided training workshops in partnership with the Project Management Institute (PMI) chapters in U.S, Canada, and France and directly to organizations such a HP, Nike, Emirate Airlines, and T-Mobile. He has presented at international conferences such as PMI Global Summit, Dubai International Project Management Forum, and Oracle OpenWorld. He is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute.
Speaker: Klaus Boedker, CDAC, CDAI
Klaus Boedker, CDAC, CDAI is a seasoned agile coach and trainer with 13 years of experience guiding organizational transformation, helping teams and individuals improve, and designing training that more than a quarter of a million people have taken globally.
Today, he runs a coaching & training company called Inner Agility Academy. Through modern training and coaching, they equip people with the skills needed to navigate the ever-increasing influence of artificial intelligence to stay relevant and get ahead in the workplace.
When not working, Klaus enjoys taking the family dog for hikes in the local mountains and mixing perfect Negronis. He lives in Vancouver on Canada’s beautiful west coast.
Speaker: Adam Nemer
Adam Nemer is shifting the conversation surrounding workplace mental health, equipping leaders with practical techniques to create Stigma-Free Mental Wellbeing Cultures.
Adam was a CFO and Operations senior leader at Kaiser Permanente for 19 years while suffering from undiagnosed depression and anxiety as one of the 20% of Americans who annually experience a clinically diagnosable mental illness. Fortunately, a compassionate boss encouraged him to get help, and his life changed.
During Adam’s recovery, he witnessed the insidious myths and stigma surrounding mental illness. Few leaders feel comfortable approaching colleagues when they observe them grappling with mental wellness. So, he started sharing his story, and quickly found he was making a difference. Inspired, Adam founded Simple Mental Health to put mental health literacy in leaders’ toolboxes.
When leaders understand the struggles their colleagues face and how to help them, they create exponential improvement in employee satisfaction, performance, and they change lives!
Speaker: LuAnn Piccard
LuAnn Piccard, PMP, is the Chair of the Board of Directors of Project Management Institute. She served on the PMI Board from 2019 to 2021, and again from 2022 to the present.
Piccard is a professor and chair of the Project Management Department at the University of Alaska Anchorage, USA. In addition to her career in academia, Piccard has more than 20 years of experience in technology-sector project and portfolio management, including 10 years as a senior executive for Hewlett Packard, Agilent Technologies, and Advanced Energy Industries, where she led complex, profitable, and cross-functional businesses serving customers worldwide.
She is a regular speaker at events and conferences around the world and has served as a volunteer director for 11 non-profit boards, including 10 years as an officer and director for Habitat for Humanity of Anchorage.
Piccard holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Engineering, both from Stanford University, USA. She is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
