Bio

If you’ve ever earned a PMI credential, renewed it, tracked PDUs, or used “PMP” as a shorthand for credibility in the market, you’ve benefited from a world most project managers never see: credential strategy and governance.

Victor R. Carter-Bey is an executive leader with deep experience in credentialing, workforce value strategy, and member engagement. Public profiles of his work note that he served as PMI’s Director of Certification, where he oversaw development and implementation of product growth and workforce development strategies designed to enhance member value and engagement for over 1 million global professionals. His background also includes leadership work in credentialing services at Prometric.

A 2014 speaker biography published by the U.S. Department of Energy describes him as the PMI Director of Certification and notes he led strategic planning, marketing, and brand positioning for a certification program spanning hundreds of thousands of certificants across 180+ countries at the time.

The impact he’s made

Project management isn’t a licensed profession. There’s no universal board exam that every PM must pass to practice. That means our field relies heavily on something else to create trust at scale: standards, credential integrity, and a globally relevant certification ecosystem.

Victor Carter-Bey’s impact sits right in that “behind-the-curtain” engine room. As PMI’s Director of Certification, his remit included the full lifecycle of PMI’s certifications—from development and maintenance through positioning and promotion to ensure global relevance in an increasingly competitive certification market. In plain terms: he helped protect the credibility of credentials that employers use to make hiring decisions and professionals use to accelerate mobility.

This matters because credential governance isn’t just an administrative function—it shapes the talent marketplace. When certification programs are well-governed and trusted, they become portable proof of capability. When they’re not, everyone pays: employers lose confidence, professionals lose signal value, and the profession loses stature.

Why it matters to PMISC members

PMISC members live in a region where complex work is the norm—program environments with high compliance, interdependencies, and scrutiny. In those spaces, credibility isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s currency.

Carter-Bey’s story is a reminder that the letters after your name don’t matter because they look good on a signature line—they matter because they represent a system of trust that must be actively maintained. When PMI credentials remain rigorous, relevant, and well-positioned globally, PMISC members benefit locally: better career portability, stronger negotiating power, clearer role alignment, and a shared professional language that travels across industries.

And there’s a second layer PMISC leaders will appreciate: certification programs don’t stay valuable by accident. They stay valuable because leaders treat them like strategic products—protecting quality, evolving requirements, and aligning the offering with workforce needs. That’s program thinking. That’s portfolio thinking. That’s leadership.

Key takeaways you can implement in your own career

Carter-Bey’s impact becomes actionable when you translate “credential governance” into your own professional operating system.

First, treat your credibility like a product roadmap. Don’t collect credentials like trophies—use them to signal a coherent story: what you deliver, what you lead, and what outcomes you can reliably produce. His role underscores that credentials are meant to stay relevant to the market; your job is to keep your value proposition just as current.

Second, lean into standards—not as bureaucracy, but as leverage. When you build a habit of documenting decisions, clarifying requirements, and protecting integrity (scope, quality, compliance), you become the person leadership trusts under pressure. That’s the same logic that makes certification integrity matter: trust is built by consistency.

Finally, think bigger than your current project. Carter-Bey’s work shows how one strategic function can influence an entire profession. Adopt that mindset in your role: where are the “systems” you can improve that outlast a single initiative—templates, governance, onboarding, lessons learned, mentoring, or operating rhythms? That’s how you move from strong PM to enterprise leader.

References

Risk & Insurance – “7 People on the Move” (CAS names Victor R. Carter-Bey CEO; notes PMI Director of Certification role and scope):
https://riskandinsurance.com/7-people-on-the-move-4/

Carrier Management – “Executives On The Move…” (repeats PMI Director of Certification role; credentialing/workforce strategy scope):
https://www.carriermanagement.com/news/2019/10/24/199394.htm

U.S. Department of Energy PDF – 2014 PM Workshop Speaker Biographies (describes Dr. Victor Carter-Bey’s PMI Director of Certification role and program scale):
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/03/f14/2014%20PM%20Workshop%20Speaker%20Biographies_24%20Mar%202014.pdf

The Project Management Podcast – Episode 334 transcript excerpt (Victor Carter-Bey describes his PMI certification program role and responsibilities):
https://www.project-management-podcast.com/podcast-episodes/episode-details/episode-334-pmp-pdu-program-updates-are-coming-on-december-1st-2015