The DEI SIG is launching a new webinar series featuring winners of the IPMA Project Excellence Awards to explore how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion contributed to the successful delivery of their projects. The series kicks off on November 26th with Rachel Jones, the first-ever recipient of the IPMA Global DEI Award in 2025. Ms. Jones, Senior Project Manager and Project Portfolio Manager at the City of Cape Town, earned this recognition for her exceptional work on the project “Bridging the Divide: An Immersive Approach to Project Portfolio Management at the City of Cape Town, South Africa” Her project demonstrated a bold commitment to fostering equitable opportunities and driving inclusive growth throughout the community.

Joining the conversation is our DEI champion Dr. Teri Okoro, a board member of IPMA Nigeria and Founder of P3MAfrica. A regular guest of the DEI SIG, Dr. Okoro recently authored Foundations of Diversity and Inclusion in Project Management.

Come, join the DEI conversation to hear directly from the IPMA Global DEI Award winning portfolio management practitioner, and the author of a practical guide designed to raise awareness and provide actionable, entry-level strategies for embedding inclusion into project delivery.

Speakers

Rachel Jones

Rachel Jones is a Senior Project Manager in the Project Portfolio Management Unit of the Corporate Project, Programme, and Portfolio Management (C3PM) Department at the City of Cape Town. With over 15 years of experience in project management and a decade in government administration, Rachel plays a pivotal role in the analysis and reporting of the City’s Capital Portfolio. She collaborates with cross-functional teams to evaluate project plans, identify improvement opportunities, mitigate risks, and drive innovation.

In addition to her project management expertise, Rachel is the IPMA South Africa Award Director and the Lead for the City of Cape Town’s Project Excellence Awards Programme. She is passionate about shining a light on hard work and is influential in promoting reward and recognition within the organisation. Her advocacy for inclusivity and empowerment through Project Portfolio Management was recently recognised when she received a gold award at the 2025 IPMA Project Excellence Awards in the Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity category.

Dr. Teri Okoro

Dr Teri Okoro has volunteered with IPMA for several years. She is Lead of APM’s People Interest Network, an Assessor for the Project Excellence Awards and supports PMDAN (Nigeria MA) with Membership. Previously Chair of APM’s Women in Project Management SIG, she is passionate about inclusion and social sustainability in project visioning, delivery and outcomes. She wrote the APM’s thought leadership paper on Diversity and Inclusion Joining the Dance, sits on the UK’s Construction Industry Council (CIC) Diversity and Inclusion Committee and advises the the Mayor for London on Inclusion matters as a Mayors Design Advocate. She writes extensively and is an international speaker on Inclusion and Project Management including presenting at both IPMA Diversity and Inclusion conferences.

Moderator

Dr. Tikajit Rai
Global Head of IPMA SIG Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI)

Dr. Tikajit Rai has over 20 years of PPPM experience in leading capacity in EdTech, wireless technology, and software development spaces. Also, a champion in social entrepreneurship, he won the 2013 IPMA “Gold” for Community Development Project and the 2013 Green Project Management “Silver” for Most Sustainable Project for the project he implemented in Nepal to help rural farmers through ICT. His mantra for successful project and program deliveries has been his favorite quartet: PPPM, Systems Thinking, Entrepreneurial Change, Enabling Thrivability of teams. For him, the last of the quartet focuses on people and DEI is key element of the mantra.

He currently leads and supports both projects and programs at Adtalem Global Education, USA, through LearnoVation team to research, test and scale innovative learning technologies – includes AR/VR, AI, Avatar based simulations – across five education institutions to support its collective 80K+ students succeed academically.

He is an active IPMA PE Assessor and has an active PMP certification. He holds Bachelor of science in Electrical Engineering, Master of Science in Information and Communications Technology, and Ph.D. in eLearning Methodology.

Organizer: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI)
Date and time: November 26, 2025, 2pm CET
Format: webinar
Duration: 1h
Number of CPDs: 1.5
Mode of delivery: online
Ticket price: Free