From Country Club Finances to Public Health in the Developing World

By Dan Goldfischer

Editor’s Note: This is the first of an occasional series on project managers with interesting careers. If you or a colleague would make an interesting profile, please e-mail us.

Thanks to former PMI Director Karen Tate, MBA, PMP, for suggesting Natalie Gaul.

Sometimes things happen in our lives that change the course of our careers and positively affect many others along the way. So it has been with Natalie Gaul.

At age 35, Ms. Gaul worked as a controller at a private country club. Then, her mother passed away, and that prompted her to seek a change in her career and life.

She became a temporary worker in the field of accounting. A two-week assignment at Management Sciences for Health (MSH), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, was a pivotal moment. “Sixteen years and multiple promotions later, I am still here,” said Ms. Gaul. “I was totally smitten in those two weeks by the people and their mission to serve the poor.”

MSH is a not-for-profit organization founded 40 years ago by a Boston doctor who felt there were simple ways to fix most public health problems worldwide. It is primarily funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a government agency providing U.S. economic development aid and humanitarian assistance.

MSH’s primary projects focus on HIV/AIDS; malaria and basic primary health care, especially for children; access to essential drugs; and building and management and leadership capacity of public health professionals in the developing world.

As Ms. Gaul worked her way up at MSH, she realized that most of her work involved projects. “I decided to take a project management course from Bentley College, and [it] changed my life,” she said. She decided that project management and training others in project management was what she should be doing in her career.

Her job involves 70-80 percent travel, so far visiting 36 project offices around the world. Ms. Gaul trains MSH project teams, and staff of other non-governmental organizations on financial management, operations and project management skills.

While her aim is to strengthen the abilities to deliver projects, her ultimate goal is to strengthen public health projects, improve quality of life and save lives in the developing world.

Two projects have stood out for Ms. Gaul.

“Early in my MSH career, I went to Bangladesh to help with family planning development projects, doing auditing and financial systems work,” she said. “The project was a local initiative, mobilizing poor rural women and training them to be community outreach workers to provide family planning information.”

The women did the work for free, she said. They only received transportation reimbursement and assistance with obtaining loans for enterprises they were involved in from the local micro-financing bank.

She was urged to go visit the actual project in a rural village and felt like an honored guest, with children throwing flower petals upon her arrival. The women, dressed in what may have been their only fancy saris, were very grateful for what the project had done for them and were hugging her, holding her hand and stroking her face.

“I was in shock and in tears” said Ms. Gaul.

That event convinced her she had made the right career decision.

An MSH/USAID project in Afghanistan to support the Ministry of Health rebuild that war-torn country’s health infrastructure was another outstanding project in Ms. Gaul’s career. MSH worked with the Ministry of Health to rebuild completely destroyed hospitals and other facilities, train community health workers, and empower women.

“This was an extremely well-run, highly successful project, especially when considering there was no infrastructure in Afghanistan,” she noted. “Donkeys and horses were used in many areas for transport during the initial health system survey. They hired many women [who] for possibly the first time were working outside of the home.

“I made multiple trips to Kabul to support the finance and operations and project management systems. For me, it was a life-changing experience—it was the first time I worked in war zone. Even in a war zone, you can conduct successful projects.”

Ms. Gaul has also found many challenges in her career.

“Things don’t always go smoothly. People underestimate the ‘people factor’ in project management, the importance of getting along, communication and teamwork.

“You don’t know if tomorrow you will have funding. And two-to-five year projects may be affected by changes in the U.S. presidential administration, the latest priorities of USAID or other donors, wars and economic events like the recession. And of course, we need to submit a winning proposal to receive funding for a new or continuing project.

“Recent events such as the earthquake in Haiti provide the greatest type of challenge and risk for our projects, far beyond schedule slips and scope creep. The first concern in Haiti was for us to ensure that our project teams there were safe and supported (they were). An event such as this demonstrates so clearly the need for detailed risk management plans and the ability to act on them quickly.”

Ms. Gaul joined PMI and has gone to several PMI global congresses. “I really enjoy taking a trip [to a congress] where the sole focus is on learning things that will benefit my job. [It] expands my mind and provides the chance to meet others who share the same interests.” said Ms. Gaul.

At MSH, most of her colleagues come from public health background, with very few specializing in project management. Ms. Gaul has shown that you don’t have to have the technical background to be a good project manager—but you do have to believe in the mission of the projects.