Project management is ultimately about people!
Interview with Kimia Penton
Author, Musician, Recording Artist
Transformative Corporate, Community & Professional Leader
President, PMI Dallas Chapter
Dallas, Texas, USA
Interviewed by Yasmina Khelifi
International Correspondent, PM World Journal
Paris, France
Introduction to the interviewee
Kimia Penton is a transformation leader, organizational psychology professional, bestselling author, recording artist, and speaker whose work sits at the intersection of people, strategy, and creativity. With extensive experience leading organizational and technology transformation, she helps leaders and organizations navigate complex change while building cultures rooted in trust, authenticity, and meaningful connection. Kimia is the author of Power, on Purpose: Where Authenticity Becomes Radical Leadership, which explores how leaders can move beyond performative success toward values-driven impact. A lifelong violinist, songwriter, and recording artist, she brings creativity and storytelling into her leadership work as powerful tools for connection and transformation. She also teaches at UT Dallas and serves as the elected President of the PMI Dallas Chapter. Across her corporate, community, academic, and creative work, Kimia is passionate about helping people lead authentically, build stronger relationships, and create sustainable change.
You can learn more about Kimia at www.kimiapenton.com, Linkedin: Kimia Penton and IG: @kimiapenton;
Interview
Q1: How did you come to work in project management?
Kimia Penton (Kimia): My background in organizational psychology naturally led me into project management during my early consulting career. I discovered that my combination of analytical and creative thinking helped me quickly assess client challenges, define practical solutions, and bring people together around a path forward. Project management became a natural extension of those strengths, turning ideas into action while building the relationships, trust, and alignment needed to deliver meaningful results.
Q2: What are your roles today at work and as a volunteer in project management?
Kimia: Professionally, I lead large-scale transformation and strategic programs, bringing together people, technology, processes, and organizational change. In the community, I serve as President of the PMI Dallas Chapter, where I focus on strengthening member engagement, developing future leaders, and building meaningful partnerships. I also teach project management at UT Dallas, helping students connect project management principles with real-world consulting and leadership experiences.
Q3: What challenges do you foresee in project management?
More…
To read entire interview, click here
How to cite this interview: Khelifi, Y. (2026). Project management is ultimately about people! Interview with Kimia Penton ; PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue IX, September. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/pmwj168-Sep2026-Khelifi-Interview-with-Kimia-Penton.pdf
About the Interviewer
Yasmina Khelifi
Paris, France
Yasmina Khelifi, PMP, PMI- ACP, PMI-PBA is an experienced project manager in the telecom industry. Along with her 20-year career at Orange S.A. (the large French multinational telecommunications corporation), she sharpened her global leadership skills, delivering projects with major manufacturers and SIM makers. Yasmina strives for building collaborative bridges between people to make international projects successful. She relies on three pillars: project management skills, the languages she speaks, and a passion for sharing knowledge.
She is a PMP certification holder since 2013, a PMI- ACP and PMI-PBA certification holder since 2020. She is an active volunteer member at PMI France and PMI UAE, and a member of PMI Germany Chapter. French-native, she can speak German, English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and she is learning Arabic. Yasmina loves sharing her knowledge and experiences at work, in her volunteers’ activities at PMI, and in projectmanagement.com as a regular blogger. She is also the host and co-founder of the podcast Global Leaders Talk with Yasmina Khelifi to help people in becoming better international leaders.
Yasmina can be contacted at https://yasminakhelifi.com/ or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasminakhelifi-pmp-telecom/
Visit her correspondent profile at https://pmworldlibrary.net/yasmina-khelifi/
To view other works by Yasmina, visit her author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/yasmina-khelifi/
