Early years
Mr. Ajam attended elementary school in his public village school. He finished his high school at Al Malaab Al Balady High School in Tripoli, Lebanon.

Bachelor Degree
Due to the civil war in Lebanon, Mr. Ajam left to the United States for education after finishing his high school. In the US he attended the University of Houston while also working in various jobs until he joined the cooperative education program that is run by the university and industry. Mr. Ajam completed his bachelor degree in civil engineering while working 4 semesters with Houston Lighting and Power Company. Mr. Ajam was able to combine excellence at work while maintaining focus on his education and as a result, he graduated with honor while earning the Cooperative Education Excellence Award.

Master Degree
After working professionally for a couple of years after the bachelor degree, Mr. Ajam went back to education and earned a Master of Science from the top ranked University of California at Berkeley; Number One in the United States in civil engineering. He graduated with a GPA of 3.8 out of 4.0.

Leadership Institute
In early 2006, Mr. Ajam was nominated and invited to join the Project Management Institute (PMI) prestigious Leadership Institute Master Class, a one year leadership program for volunteer leaders and it is by Invitation only. In 2007, Mr. Ajam graduated from the program along with 22 other PMI leaders.

Beside the formal degree and programs, Mr. Ajam is keen on the concept of Life Long Learning and as a result, he continues to seek knowledge and the application of knowledge through additional classes, research, reading, and writing. 
 

Cooperative (Coop) Education Program
1984 to 1986
Houston, Texas
The Coop program is an Internship program where participants rotate full time work with full time education. In other words, attend a semester at university full time while working full time the following semester. Through this program, Mr. Ajam worked for four semesters (roughly 2 years) with Houston Lighting and Power Company in their high voltage transmission department – foundation design. For his work, performance and graduating with honor, he earned the University of Houston Coop Excellence Award in 1986.

Engineering
1987 - 1989
California / Various Locations
Field Engineers
Soil/Environmental Assignments
After obtaining a bachelor degree, Mr. Ajam moved to California to work with a geotechnical and environmental consultancy performing various roles from ground water remediation to quality control on major projects. He left his employer to go back to college and seek a Master of Science.

Project Management
Exxon Chemical
1990 to 1998
With a Master of Science in Engineering and Construction Management, Mr. Ajam was recruited by Exxon Chemical Company and joining them in Baytown, Texas in their Basic Chemical Technology Strategic Business Unit and later their global Central Project Management Division. While with Exxon, Mr. Ajam advanced rapidly through various roles starting with cost estimating engineer, leader of a cost estimating team, project engineer, cost control engineer, project control manager, and integrated project services manager.

Independent Consultant
1998 to 2000
Texas, USA
In 1998, Mr. Ajam left Exxon to launch his own consultancy in Project Management and Control and immediately landed an opportunity to work on a mega petrochemical project that was being developed by an international Joint Venture in Texas. Mr. Ajam joined the project team responsible for this project.

Saudi Arabia Oil Company (Saudi Aramco)
2000 to 2005
Saudi Arabia
At the end of 2000 Mr. Ajam joined Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia, a step that brought him back to his native region although not his homeland. In Saudi Aramco he started in the business group for a cogeneration power project but then was shortly moved into other role, mostly working on special projects reporting for a major Project Management department. His primary roles were leading a Project Management human resource professional development team and a continuous excellence team. In addition to these roles, he was an advocate for professional Project Management and launched various training programs, most of them are still run at Saudi Aramco.

SUKAD FZ-LLC
2005 - Present
Dubai, UAE
Co-founder / CEO
In 2005, Mr. Ajam left Saudi Aramco and joined SUKAD as Chief Executive Officer. SUKAD is a company he co-founded with a group of friends. In less than 3 years, SUKAD has grown its reputation across the region and is currently recognized as a leader in Project Management in the Middle East with a client list including the top names in the UAE and the GCC.

Special Skills and Expertise
From the various jobs and assignments over his career, Mr. Ajam has developed special skills and areas of expertise and has been exposed to innovative and best practices in Project Management. Some of these are:

•      Significant expertise with joint venture (worked on at least 3 major projects)
•      Significant expertise in reimbursable cost (cost plus) projects and contracting
•      A few years working on alliance type (partnering) contract
•      Established a Project Support Office (similar to PMO) when the term was not even popular in the industry.
•      Worked on managing multiple small projects
•      Significant experience with at least three mega – world class – projects
•      Unique exposure to a mega project with major modularization component
•      Participated in the application of various best practices, such scope management and control, constructability, value management, and benchmarking

1990 – 1994; while at Exxon Chemical
Houston, Texas
Participated in various corporate social responsibility initiatives by the company, most specifically a volunteer involvement program to fix housing for the poor and tutoring underprivileged high school students in science and mathematics.

Arab Community Centre
1998 - 2000
Houston, Texas
Actively participated in the Arabic Community in Houston, Texas. The volunteer work included using Project Management expertise to provide services for the development of a community center in Houston.

Project Management Institute
2002 - 2008
Mr. Ajam has been an active volunteer with PMI since he joined in 1998, but he started to assume leadership roles in 2003 onward. In 2005 he was invited to join a 5-member global team as Global Advisors for the Registered Education Program at PMI. He participated on the project team for various standards developed by PMI, including the PMBOK® Guide and the first edition of the Standards for Program and Portfolio Management. He was invited and participated twice to join the judging team on PMI Education Provider and PMI Education Product Awards. Mr. Ajam was also invited to join the 5-member Congress Action Team for the PMI 2008 EMEA Congress in Malta. Mr. Ajam was also well known across the GCC for his service to PMI since he actively led a team of volunteers in the Certification and Education Team for PMI GCC Chapter where the team launched new programs leading to more than tripling the number of certified PMP in the GCC.

Due to his significant contribution to PMI, he was invited to join the PMI Leadership Institute Master Class, a one year program. Mr. Ajam graduated from the program in 2007.

Global Project & Process Management Association
2006 - Present
Since 2006, Mr. Ajam was actively working with a group of volunteers toward establishing a Project Management association in the UAE. However, for various reasons that did not happen until 2007 where Dubai Knowledge Village offered to help in establishing the association and the effort led to announcing the launch of the Global Project and Process Management Association (GPPMA) in late 2007 with final registration obtained in summer of 2008. Mr. Ajam was elected chairman of the first board of directors from 2008 to 2009 and was just re-elected chairman of the board for a two-year term.

Volunteer Leader
Mr. Mounir Ajam has been a volunteer in one capacity or another since he was a teenager tutoring neighbors and friends in math or leading boys and girls scout teams. His various volunteer activities were in different areas, but in recent years the focus shifted to volunteering for the growth of the emerging profession of Project Management and on ways to use his global experience for the community. Some of his various volunteer and leadership roles are listed here:

2003-2006: Contributed to various standards by the Project Management Institute (PMI), such as PMBOK® Guide and Program and Portfolio Management
2005: Certification & Education Director for the Regional Chapter of the PMI. Launched the Low Fee Seminars program where volunteers help others to prepare for the PMP® Exam at a fraction of the cost offered by the chapter and other providers
2005-2007: Member of an eight-members global Advisory Group to PMI Registered Education Providers program
2005 & 2006: Judge on Educational Product of the Year and Provider of the Year Awards for PMI
2006-2007: Invited to join the PMI Leadership Institute Master Class and graduated from the one-year program in May 2007
2007-2008: Member of a five-member Congress Project Action Team for the 2008 PMI EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Congress
2007: Co-founder of the Global Project & Process Management Association (GPPMA), launched from Dubai to the world
2007-2009: First Chairman of the Board for GPPMA
2009-Present: Re-elected as Chairman of the Board for GPPMA for two years term
 

Mr. Mounir Ajam's emphasis on volunteerism and service leadership has been indoctrinated into the SUKAD culture and corporate values. SUKAD and its team have been involved in numerous community events for the emerging profession of Project Management, especially in the UAE and even into other countries in the Middle East. The following are a few examples of some of these events:

2004 & 2005: Knowledge is Power Series
2006: Program Management Office (PMO) in partnership with Dubai Women College
2007: Leader vs. Manager in partnership with ADNOC Distribution
2006-Present: Various events/day conferences in partnership with Dubai Knowledge Village
2007-Present: Various events for the Global Project & Process Management Association (GPPMA)

Mr. Ajam is a highly recognized local, regional, and global speaker. He has been invited to speak at various seminars, conferences, and universities.

Locations

The following are the locations where Mr. Ajam volunteered his time to share his knowledge:

•      Manama, Bahrain; PMI Event
•      Kuwait City, Kuwait; Tamilnadu Engineering Society
•      Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; PMI Event
•      Yanbu, Saudi Arabia; PMI Event
•      Doha, Qatar; SUKAD Community Event
•      Beirut, Lebanon; SUKAD Community Event
•      Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; multiple events by SUKAD, GPPMA, PMI, and SUKAD Partners
•      Dubai, United Arab Emirates; multiple events by SUKAD, GPPMA, PMI, and SUKAD Partners
•      Athens, Greece; PMI Chapter Conference
•      Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Oil & Gas Symposium
•      Sao Paulo, Brazil; Mega Projects Conference
•      Prague, Czech Republic; PMI Global Congress
•      Edinburgh, Scotland; PMI Global Congress
•      Madrid, Spain; PMI Global Congress
•      Anaheim, United States (California); PMI Global Congress

Topics

The following are some of the professional published papers and presentations’ topics by Mr. Ajam:

•      PM Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities in the GCC
•      Professional Development Program – Case Study
•      Awakening the Giant Within
•      Knowledge and Actions
•      Contract Management
•      Introduction to Project Management
•      Past Stories, Leading to Best Practices
•      Dubai: The Mega Projects City (presented in Brazil)
•      Project Management: in Search of Excellence
•      Simplified Project Management
•      Strategic Project Management
•      Project Management Certifications
•      Project Management Professional Development
•      Project Management Career Path
•      Project Management Certification – Regional Study
•      From Failure to Success – Mega Projects Case Studies
•      Project Management versus Quality Management

Mr. Ajam has contributed on a complimentary basis various articles to:

1. UAE Based Publications: 

•      Construction Week
•      Quality Quilt (Dubai Quality Group)
•      DKV Experts Channel

 2. Global

•      PM Forum (online)
•      PM World Today (Online)

3. Published Professional Papers

•      PM in the GCC (2004)
•      Professional Development (2005, 2006)
•      Awakening the Giant (2006, 2007)

Volume 1: The Inheritance - Story about Project Management

Volume 2: Simplified Project Management – The SUKAD Model for Managing Projects

Volume 3 (various booklets): The Application of the SUKAD Model – Case Studies
 

•      Summer of 2009: Coached six MBA interns from the Hult International Business School (Hult IBS), MBA Program
•      2009-2010: Hult IBS Mentorship Program; Mentor to a MBA graduate student
•      Ad Hoc: Mr. Ajam also supported informally various professionals that approached him for advice or mentoring  

Mr. Ajam was born in a small village in North Lebanon in 1962. He is the 7th of an eight children family and the first to graduate from college. He left Lebanon after high school to pursue university studies and higher education. Due to the economic conditions in war-torn Lebanon, Mr. Ajam self-supported himself through his college years and although he had to work extensively to pay college and life expenses he still managed to graduate with honor from the University of Houston and finished a Master of Science from the University of California – Berkeley, which is globally recognized and the number one in the United States for many fields including civil engineering.
 
Mr. Ajam is married with two young children.