Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Pusz.
Joe, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
THE PMO SQUAD has been operating now for 4 years. Like many small business owners, I was ready to leave corporate America and take on the challenge of running my own business. The journey to reach that point included travels across the country and positions with small and large companies.
I started project management about 20 years ago for a small internet company in midtown Atlanta. That was during the tech bubble and after about a year we were bought out by a Boston based company who was shutting down the Atlanta operation. I continued as a Project Manager with a Southeast Regional private company running projects within the Automotive industry. That continued for a couple of years until our client pulled funding from the project I was running and it was time for another change.
Next up was a Program Manager role with a Fortune 200 Rhode Island organization, Textron, running financial projects in the Alpharetta office. We had great successes with this program and lead to the implementation of an Enterprise Accounts Receivable system. This success earned me an Employee of the Year award and also allowed me to become the 1st employee selected into a new Leadership Acceleration Program. The Program was a 3-year rotation based program which would lead me to Bell Helicopter in Dallas, TX and Cessna Aircraft in Wichita, KS.
During this Program, I worked in advanced leadership positions with close contact and mentorship from Executives from IT operations and Business functions. Once the Program completed I stayed in Kansas and held a leadership position for Cessna Aircraft working with all facets of the organization including Sales, Accounting, Legal, Communication, and IT. Unfortunately, the great recession hit Cessna hard and I was caught up in the employees who were let go during the downturn.
Next up was a move back to Atlanta as Executive Director of the WellStar IT PMO. This was great exposure to the Healthcare industry. We completed an overhaul of the PMO at Wellstar and introduced a Portfolio Management process that lead to an active project portfolio in excess of $250 million.
Throughout this growth up the corporate ladder, I had the great fortune to have access to tremendous mentors. They helped me grow and provided valuable insight to critical success factors for continued growth and leadership. Calling upon these learnings I decided it was time to move on from WellStar and start up THE PMO SQUAD!
4 years later we are going strong and are poised to expand beyond Atlanta and begin operations in Phoenix during the summer of this year. We will continue to work with and grow our Atlanta client base as we look to become a leader in the Phoenix Project Management industry.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There have been struggles along the way. One of the challenges of a small business is learning how to handle all roles within the organization. While having the role of President and CEO I also learned the key functions of Accounting, Sales, Marketing, Operations, and more. A man with many hats is a great description!
Of course, there is also the struggle of keeping clients happy and working with them to develop long term relationships which are mutually beneficial. No longer are you an employee trying to get a vendor to assist, now as President we are the vendor trying to keep client engaged and pleased with our services.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with THE PMO SQUAD – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
THE PMO SQUAD is a Project Management Consulting firm. We specialize in all things PMO and Project Management consulting and training. By focusing on just Project Management we set ourselves apart from staffing firm which places resources in many roles but specialize in none. We aren’t a staffing firm, we don’t place resources. We build long term relationships with clients so we understand the business needs to require for success.
We also are one of only a few firms nationwide who offer PMO as a Service. This Service based model is more common with Software as a Service, Application as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service. Companies such as ADP, Salesforce, IBM and others have dominated those markets and opened the door for PMO as a Service to be the next delivery model.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
The biggest change right now for us is the expansion to Phoenix as a second base of operations. Atlanta is our HQ and we don’t have any plans to leave, rather we are focused on growing both Atlanta and Phoenix to create a national presence and brand over the next couple of years.
We believe our PMO as a Service offering is at the leading edge of innovation within the Project Management space and we are positioning ourselves to take the lead bringing this model to clients across the USA.
We have also recently announced 2 key Strategic Partnerships. We are honored to partner with Vets2PM giving our military veterans an opportunity to transition to civilian based Project Management leadership roles. We have also partnered with PeopleTek to ensure our clients have access to Executive coaching and advanced leadership training!
Contact Info:
- Address: 3600 Dallas Highway
Suite 230, Marietta, GA 300643317 S Higley Rd.,
Suite 114, Gilbert, AZ 85297 - Website: www.THEPMOSQUAD.com
- Phone: 404-369-3099
- Email: Info@thepmosquad.com
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