PMI UK Celebrating Women 2026: From Investment to Impact: What Truly Drives Value in Mega & Complex Programs. 9th April 2026
PMI Celebrating Women 2026 – Delivering Value in an Era of Complexity. This event will be taking place the University of Westminster, London
PMI UK is proud to host PMI Celebrating Women 2026, an in-person International Women’s Day celebration dedicated to leadership, complexity, and value delivery at scale.
Aligned with this year’s IWD theme, “Give to Gain,” this event brings together insight, experience, and community, creating a space where knowledge shared becomes collective growth.
The evening will feature a keynote by Grace Najjar, followed by a moderated women’s panel discussion and a networking reception.
This will be a focused, high-impact event celebrating women while exploring the realities of delivering value in today’s complex environments.
Agenda
- 18:30 – Registration & Arrival
- 19:00 – Opening Segment (15 minutes)
PMI UK Welcome - 19:15 – Keynote Address (45 minutes)
Grace Najjar
From Investment to Impact: What Truly Drives Value in Mega & Complex Programs. Mega and complex programs operate in environments defined by technical sophistication, financial pressure, regulatory intensity, and expanding stakeholder ecosystems. Despite advanced tools and methodologies, inefficiencies persist — cost overruns, scope volatility, reactive decision-making, and fragmented governance. This keynote explores what truly drives value beyond ambition and scale. Drawing from cross-industry insights across infrastructure, industrial, energy, and financial programs, the session examines:- The operational reality of engineering-led environments
- The shift from task control to lifecycle integration and disciplined governance
- The embedded role of AI and technology in connecting estimation, planning, cost modelling, and performance
This session moves beyond theory to practical transformation — demonstrating how integration, aligned leadership, and embedded intelligence convert investment into measurable impact.
- 20:00 – Women’s Panel Discussion + Audience Q&A (30 minutes)
Format: Moderated discussion + audience Q&A (30 minutes) Moderator: Ariadna Grobério
The panel will explore governance, integration, leadership alignment, accountability, and the realities of delivery in complex environments.
- 20:30 – Networking Reception
Keynote Speaker
Grace Najjar is a Global Executive Leader with extensive EMEA experience in strategy execution, governance, and value delivery across complex and mega-scale programs. She operates at the intersection of digital transformation, AI-enabled efficiency, and program governance and value delivery, supporting organizations in translating strategy into measurable operational impact.
With a background in Systems Engineering and ICT, Grace has overseen systems design validation, implementation supervision, and quality assurance frameworks to ensure alignment with client requirements, regulatory standards, and performance objectives — particularly within infrastructure, industrial, and cross-functional technology environments.
She previously served as Regional Managing Director for the Project Management Institute (PMI) in MENA, where she led record growth, more than tripling regional revenue while strengthening partnerships across governments and major institutions.
As Founder and CEO of Align Management Solutions, she leads executive-level transformation initiatives focused on governance modernization, PMO maturity, talent development, benefit realization, and embedding AI into real operational workflows where precision, cost, and execution discipline matter.
Recognized among Arabian Business’ Top 50 Inspiring Women Leaders (2024), Grace is a global speaker and educator committed to advancing women’s leadership in engineering, IT, and project governance while elevating AI-driven project excellence.