THE FUTURE OF EXECUTIVE SPONSORHIP

COMMENTARY

By Harold Kerzner, Ph.D. and Al Zeitoun, Ph.D.

California & Maryland, USA

INTRODUCTION _______________________________________________________

If you asked project managers years ago to identify the role of an executive in a company that uses project management, the response would most likely be a description of the position of a project sponsor. The PMBOK® Guide and project management textbooks described how companies envisioned the ideal role of the project sponsor at that time.

If you ask the same question today, the answer would most likely still be a project sponsor but with a different role. As project management evolves, the role of an executive with regards to projects has changed in many companies. Factors such as identification with a failed project, salary and bonuses, and responsibilities were important to executives in the past. This paper will discuss the changes that have taken place in many companies as well as the reasons for the changes. The future highlights a clearer strategic value to this maturing role of that executive.

THE NEED FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT _________________________________

Although project management has been in existence for several decades, credit for its birth and recognition as a profession is usually attributed to the aerospace and defense industries in the United States. As expected, there were significant challenges that had to be overcome, especially regarding the role of senior management.

Following World War II, the Department of Defense (DoD) recognized the need for significantly more products and services than in the past. Most of these new needs would be developed using competitive bidding practices. For the aerospace and defense industries, this necessitated a significant increase in the salesforce.

The salesforce was given the responsibility for managing almost all communications with DoD, including preparation of the proposals during competitive bidding, negotiating the final contracts, providing the client with status reports, answering all client questions and selling additional products and services. There were people initially assigned as project managers in addition to the salesforce. Most of the workers designated as project managers were engineers, usually with advanced degrees in engineering, and often with poor writing skills. Aerospace and defense contractors established technical writing departments to support project managers with poor writing ability. The salesforce took the lead in preparing the proposals.

The salesforce believed that since they were the prime communications point with the client, specifically DoD, they were the real project managers and “owned” their company’s rights to this client. The salesforce believed that they were both the “real” project managers and project sponsors in the eyes of their DoD clients. The salesforce believed that owning this right to be the prime contact point for clients would provide the salesforce with significant salary and bonus opportunities.

More…

To read entire article, click here.

How to cite this article: Kerzner, H., Zeitoun, A. (2026).  The Future of Executive Sponsorship, PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue V, May. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/pmwj164-May2026-Kerzner-Zeitoun-Future-of-Executive-Sponsorship.pdf

About the Authors

Harold Kerzner, Ph.D., MS, M.B.A

Senior Executive Director for Project Management
International Institute of Learning
New York & California, USA

Dr. Harold Kerzner is Senior Executive Director for Project Management for the International Institute for Learning (IIL). He has an MS and Ph.D. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Utah State University. He is a prior Air Force Officer and spent several years at Morton-Thiokol in project management. He taught engineering at the University of Illinois and business administration at Utah State University, and for 38 years taught project management at Baldwin-Wallace University. He has published or presented numerous engineering and business papers and has had published more than 60 college textbooks/workbooks on project management, including later editions. Some of his books are (1) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling; (2) Project Management Metrics, KPIs and Dashboards, (3) Project Management Case Studies, (4) Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence, (5) PM 2.0: The Future of Project Management, (6) Using the Project Management Maturity Model, and (7) Innovation Project Management.

He is a charter member of the Northeast Ohio PMI Chapter.

Dr. Kerzner has traveled around the world conducting project management lectures for PMI Chapters and companies in Japan, China, Russia, Brazil, Singapore, Korea, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Croatia, Mexico, Trinidad, Barbados, The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Venezuela, Columbia, United Arab Emirates, France, Italy, England, and Switzerland. He delivered a keynote speech at a PMI Global Congress on the future of project management.

His recognitions include:

• • The University of Illinois granted Dr. Kerzner a Distinguished Recent Alumni Award in 1981 for his contributions to the field of project management.

• • Utah State University provided Dr. Kerzner with the 1998 Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the field of project management.

• • The Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Project Management Institute gives out the Kerzner Award once a year to one project manager in Northeast Ohio that has demonstrated excellence in project management. They also give out a second Kerzner Award for project of the year in Northeast Ohio.

• • The Project Management Institute (National Organization) in cooperation with IIL has initiated the Kerzner International Project Manager of the Year Award given to one project manager yearly anywhere in the world that demonstrated excellence in project management.

• • The Project Management Institute also gives out four scholarships each year in Dr. Kerzner’s name for graduate studies in project management.

• • Baldwin-Wallace University has instituted the Kerzner Distinguished Lecturer Series in project management.

• • The Italian Institute of Project Management presented Dr. Kerzner with the 2019 International ISIPM Award for his contributions to the field of project management.

Dr. Harold Kerzner can be contacted at hkerzner@hotmail.com

Dr. Al Zeitoun, PgMP, PMI Fellow

System Thinker & Transformation Advisor
Maryland USA

Dr. Al Zeitoun is a Future of Work, business optimization, and operational performance excellence thought leader with global experiences in strategy execution. His experiences encompass leading organizations; delivering their Enterprise Digital and Business Transformation; guiding fitting frameworks implementations; and using his empathy, engineering insights, and collaboration strengths to successfully envision new business models and execute complex missions across diverse cultures globally.

In his recent role with Siemens, he was a Senior Director of Strategy responsible for driving the global program management practices, Master Plan governance, and enabling the Strategy Transformation processes and priorities.

In his position, as the Executive Director for Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, Abu Dhabi, UAE, he was responsible for creating the strategy execution framework, achieving transformation benefits, governance excellence, and creating the data analytics discipline necessary for delivering on the $40B complex country energy mission roadmap.

At the McLean, USA HQ of Booz Allen Hamilton, Dr. Zeitoun strategically envisioned and customized digitally enabled EPMO advisory, mapped playbooks, and capability development for clients’ Billions of Dollars strategic initiatives. Furthermore, he led the firm’s Middle East North Africa Portfolio Management and Agile Governance Solutions.

With the International Institute of Learning, Dr. Zeitoun played a senior leader and global trainer and coach. He was instrumental in driving its global expansions, thought leadership, and operational excellence methodology to sense and shape dynamic ways of working across organizations worldwide. He speaks English, Arabic, and German and enjoys good food, travel, and volunteering. Dr. Al Zeitoun can be contacted at  zeitounstrategy@gmail.com