Reinventing the PMO: Value, Velocity, & the Next Era of Delivery Leadership

The role of the PMO is changing faster than ever. With organizations pursuing greater adaptability, increased automation, and product-centric ways of working, PMOs must redefine their identity and value proposition. This panel examines how modern PMOs can transition from process owners to strategic partners who accelerate business outcomes and enable true enterprise agility.

Industry experts will discuss emerging PMO models, data-driven decision-making, workforce capability shifts, and how AI is reshaping delivery governance and reporting. Through real-world lessons and practical perspectives, this session explores what PMOs must do today to remain influential tomorrow.

Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of what distinguishes PMOs that lead the future from those left behind—and how to position their teams for relevance, resilience, and long-term success.

Facilitator

Laurel Sim PMP

An accomplished executive leader and governance expert with over 25 years of experience across 17 industries. As Managing Partner of Taleo Project Services, she has driven impactful initiatives, including managing acquisitions surpassing $1.7 billion and delivering programs worth over $800 million. Her leadership has yielded remarkable results, such as a 375% profit growth within five years.Laurel’s career spans diverse sectors, including IT consulting, healthcare, government, telecommunications, and energy. Known for her innovation, she created “Task Titans” a virtual reality game that imparts project management skills to future generations. A highly sought-after speaker and educator, she has shared her expertise at over 30 global project management conferences and delivered guest lectures at institutions such as Columbia University, Mount Royal, and Calgary University.

Panelists:

Jennifer Collis is the Director, Projects & Continuous Improvements at SAIT, where she leads the institutional Project Management Office, delivering business process improvement projects that drive SAIT's strategic plan forward. Jennifer has over 15 years of experience delivering projects and creating governance frameworks to ensure accountability in project delivery. Her work at SAIT includes development and facilitation of a project prioritization framework, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and efficient resource allocation. Her team has built a project management framework to deliver projects with strong budget, cost and schedule management, and improved project management methodologies and tools. Prior to SAIT, Jennifer worked for The City of Calgary, where she led the Project Management Office within the Planning & Development department. In this role, Jennifer and her team implemented the Scaled Agile Framework to deliver citizen-centric business improvements. Jennifer holds an MBA from Haskayne School of Business and is dedicated to driving meaningful change and fostering inclusive, people-focused leadership.

Masood Akhtar is a senior technology executive with more than 30 years of global experience leading enterprise transformation, governance modernization, and high‑value delivery across transportation, energy, higher education, and international development sectors. As Senior Director of PMO, he has built and led mature portfolio, program, and project management organizations that consistently deliver measurable business outcomes and sustained operational excellence.

Masood’s career includes leadership of complex ERP environments, large SAP and COTS portfolios, enterprise cloud modernization programs, and mission‑critical operational technology initiatives. He has stewarded multimillion‑dollar technology investments, guided organizations through mergers, regulatory undertakings, and large‑scale change programs, and established PMO and governance frameworks aligned to global standards, including PMBOK, ITIL, COBIT, and ISO.

A passionate mentor and organizational change champion, Masood is known for cultivating resilient teams, simplifying complexity, and delivering consistent, measurable results. He brings a practical, modern perspective on how PMOs can evolve from process centers to strategic enablers driving relevance, velocity, and sustainable value in the next era of delivery leadership.

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