Jim Fortner Deemed Professional of the Year in Project Management

    CHARLOTTE, NC, October 09, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Jim Fortner, Senior Project Manager for Duke Energy, has been named a Worldwide Branding Professional of the Year in Project Management. While inclusion in Worldwide Branding is an honor, only a small selection of members in each discipline are chosen for this distinction. These special honorees are distinguished based on their professional accomplishments, academic achievements, leadership abilities, years of service, and the credentials they have provided in association with their Worldwide Branding membership.

With two decades of invaluable contributions to the project management field, Jim is now a contractor in his hometown of Charlotte, NC. Since moving back home in 2013, Jim has served as a senior project manager at TIAA-CREF, a Fortune 100 financial services organization that is the leading retirement provider for people who work in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields and is currently employed by Duke Energy, the largest electric power holding company in the United States. Jim has been instrumental in assisting these organizations in projects that needed his leadership and vision in change management and identifying and implementing cost savings opportunities. For the last 15 years, Mr. Fortner has utilized his expertise in project management, corporate reporting, data analysis and software development to lead corporate strategic initiatives to develop and implement new technologies and processes while identifying and decommissioning antiquated systems and processes by successfully implementing a new platform for streamlining file exchange processes, and also lead project management coordination for an environmental stabilization program at a major financial services corporation. Additionally, Mr. Fortner is responsible for leading a successful transition where over 40 applications and processes were decommissioned and integrated into a modern commodities trading platform at a major energy service corporation, and transforming his skills and knowledge into being an executive leadership coach.

During his tenure at ICMA-RC, Mr. Fortner created, promoted, influenced and procured a strategic initiative to establish a project management methodology for all information technology projects that led to the creation of a project portfolio office. He also wrote and implemented the very first project management plan, which has been established as a corporate template. By implementing and successfully following project standards his own omni team has decreased production support hours by 200 percent since 2006. He continually demonstrates the ability to effectively manage projects and facilitate teams to achieve quality solutions that follow a Standard Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology using waterfall software development techniques, which follow standard change management procedures and meet internal audit standards. He is noted as the most successful project manager in meeting budget and milestones for all projects on an annual basis. Mr. Fortner is a leader in facilitating and promoting project management methodologies. One of his key strengths is his ability to communicate to the business community and the technology community, and create an open, agile and flexible environment. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a Bachelor of Science in engineering from North Carolina State University, and an MBA in finance from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Additionally, Mr. Fortner is a Certified Project Management Professional; he was certified in 2006.

Mr. Fortner attributes his success to being open, trustworthy and honest and building upon these principles and values to formulate positive constructive professional relationships. With these principles and values, he develops the trust of stakeholders and by collaborating with his teams, he puts together effective and efficient solutions that provide stakeholders with project results that they need. Mr. Fortner is a very objective and open-minded individual who allows his team members to think independently and has the proper business acumen to know when to take those independent and creative solutions and advocate a collaborative effort. As a mentor to fellow project managers, he stresses the need for organization and acts to promotes standards and methodologies that create and preserve efficiencies. This also allows stakeholders to anticipate the expectations and they know that he will always provide quality solutions that mitigate risk. Recognized for his attributes, Mr. Fortner has been deemed a 2015 Professional of the Year in Project Management. Looking ahead, Mr. Fortner intends to attain a challenging position in which he can utilize his expertise in project management, perhaps as the leader of the project management office within a diverse and forward-thinking enterprise. He is also looking forward to becoming professionally certified in 2016 and has plans to create and start his own business by 2017.

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