Volunteering Spotlight: Let's Meet Haikal El Abed

 

Haikal El Abed is a program manager currently serving as Team Leader at GIZ Ethiopia, where they manage complex skills, digital, and green transformation initiatives across Africa and the MENA regions.

Which project management certifications do you hold?
PMP and PMI-ACP

Which volunteer team do you currently support?
Sustainability Outreach Committee

What impact does your volunteer team have on the project management profession?
As part of the PMI Sustainability Outreach Committee, our team works to shift sustainability from a side topic to a default success factor in projects. We curate stories, practical tools, and spotlights that help project professionals and chapters worldwide embed sustainability thinking into everyday decisions, so that delivering value also means delivering positive environmental and social impact.

How does your volunteer experience benefit your day-to-day job as a project professional?
Volunteering gives me a constant “radar” of global trends, language, and practices that I bring directly into my work at GIZ. It sharpens my ability to translate big ideas (like sustainability and AI) into simple practices my teams can apply, expands my peer network for advice and benchmarking, and strengthens my credibility when I advocate for more sustainable, future-fit project decisions with partners and stakeholders.

Which M.O.R.E. principle do you apply most in your work and how does it influence your approach to delivering project success?
"Expand Perspective" is the M.O.R.E. principle I apply most. Leading multi-country programmes in complex environments, I deliberately zoom out beyond scope, schedule, and budget to ask how each decision affects communities, systems, and future resilience. This broader lens helps me connect local project outcomes to organizational strategy and global agendas (such as sustainability and youth employment), and it encourages my teams to see themselves as long-term change-makers rather than just task executors.

Is there a ProjectManagement.com article or webinar you've found helpful recently?
One webinar I found particularly helpful is Sustainability-Focused Project Leader: Why We Are Uniquely Placed to Deliver the Sustainability Transformation on ProjectManagement.com.

Where can others connect with you?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/haikalelabed/

If you are a current PMI volunteer and would like to share your story, please fill out this form and our team will reach out to you soon!