IPMA World Congress
At the 34th IPMA World Congress, the German Project Management Association (GPM) presented an exceptionally attractive programme. Highlights included keynote speeches by Alena Buyx (ethics expert, topic: «Ethical responsibility in innovation»), Mitri Sirin (ZDF presenter, topic: «How diversity shapes our future») and Laura Ludwig (Olympic beach volleyball champion, topic: «Success strategies from elite sports»). A special moment was the presentation of the IPMA Global Awards at the Brandenburg Gate during the celebrations and gala dinner marking IPMA's 60th anniversary.
IPMA CoD
The IPMA Council of Delegates (CoD), with representatives of the 71 IPMA member associations, convened in Berlin to engage in discussions, networking, and coordination. The Swiss Project Management Association (spm) was represented by board member and delegate André Moustopoulos, Laurens de Bever (Chair of the IPMA Certification and Validation Management Board, CVMB), and Mary Koutintcheva (IPMA Awards Director and nominee for the position of IPMA Vice President).
The council was opened by CoD Chair Joop Schefferlie and IPMA President Mladen Vukomanović, who welcomed the delegates and honored IPMA's key achievements in 2025, including new partnerships in Europe, Asia and the Americas, as well as the introduction of the new membership model. IPMA Vice President Vladimir Obradović then presented the current financials.
From a Swiss perspective, the highlight of this year's CoD was the election of spm member and VZPM assessor Mary Koutintcheva as Vice President of the IPMA Executive Board (ExBo). We warmly congratulate Mary on her outstanding election result and wish her much success and joy in her first three-year term.
Additionally, the Council confirmed Ronggui Ding (China), Vladimir Obradović (Serbia) and Peter Thuy (Germany) in their current roles as Vice Presidents. The revised International Certification Regulations 4.4 (ICR 4.4), which include changes related to geographical exclusivity and sustainable project management, were adopted by a clear majority. Initial results from the «Individual Competence Baseline 5 (ICB 5)» project were also presented.
IPMA CSP
A new restriction at the Certification System Panel (CSP) limited participation to one person per certification body at the hybrid event. Laurens de Bever, Chair of the CVMB, led the session and began by presenting the global development of issued certificates. During the event, he also addressed the potential of using AI in the certification process, referencing findings from the 2025 VZPM assessor workshop.
In addition to information on which certification bodies were validated in 2025 or which are still being validated - including VZPM - the scope and roadmap of the ICB 5 project were shared, along with Italy's digital examination platform as a best practice example. A lively discussion followed the presentation by Rebeka D. Vlahov, IPMA Director of Digital Transformation & Professional Development, on translating IPMA standards into other languages, data transfer to IPMA, and certificate issuance by IPMA.
VZPM was represented by Jean-Pierre Widmann, Head of Certification Body (CB), who shared VZPM's considerations regarding organisational certification with IPMA Delta®.
