Graham Garland, PMP
Future 50 Honoree of 2024
For improving animal welfare and strengthening food and water safety
Senior Project Manager II at IDEXX | Maine, United States
During his internship days in college, a mentor once imparted this piece of advice to Graham Garland which has stuck with him to this day: Always look out for Number 1 and Number 2.
For Graham, as with his mentor, looking out for Numbers 1 and 2 means working on something meaningful. But it also involves doing work that is valuable for his family. “To be able to work on something that’s rewarding, technical, and intellectually stimulating not just for me alone, but for both me and my wife, and trying to keep those priorities straight when work pulls you into emergencies, that helps me center myself. Understanding what those priorities are for me is important,” explains Graham.
When Graham worked as an aerospace mechanical engineer for the Department of Defense, he realized there were two paths for him: He could become one of the world’s foremost technical subject matter experts or become a people manager. “I’ve never really enjoyed the liability that comes with engineering. You swear an oath, and life and limb depend on the quality of your work,” he explains.
During the pandemic, he experienced the other path when he was tasked with working on the people-management side of a defense contract. Even though managing people involved a lot less engineering design, he found that he enjoyed it. “I’m one of those people that fell into project management rather than seeking it out,” explains Graham.
When the 200-person defense company he worked for was bought out and became a 16,000-person global company, Graham used the opportunity to pursue a project management role outside the company.
I was looking to level up my career for my family. I knew I had a good skill set and that I could develop it. I did my research and found that PMI was the gold standard.
I was looking to level up my career for my family. I knew I had a good skill set and that I could develop it. I did my research and found that PMI was the gold standard.
“I had been handed project management responsibilities like a lot of people that I talked to in my local PMI chapter—without formal training and tools. I’m glad I got the training I did.” By 2021, he completed his Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification and decided it was time to find something that excluded the life-and-limb piece he’d previously experienced.
He found that job as a senior project manager at IDEXX, a livestock, poultry, and dairy biotech company that creates tests and software for herd and flock animals. They also make 90% of the pet tests and software veterinarians use to test for things like heartworm and beyond.
“There’s something that feels good about helping animals so they’re happier and healthier. If you go to a grocery store and you buy any of the meat and animal products, those have all been tested by IDEXX,” says Graham. “Any water you drink from your taps, we do water testing on municipal water supplies around the world. I didn’t think I’d want to work in this field, but it’s been rewarding and fun.”
It's also, according to Graham, eye-opening. “If you do it right, you prevent a COVID-like event from wiping out an entire animal population. A few years ago, African swine fever wiped out most of China’s pigs, which does crazy things to the food chain, food prices, and genetics in breeding,” he explains.
The aerospace world is, in Graham’s view, “monochromatic.” At IDEXX, he can work with colleagues around the world, something he never got to do before. “That has taught me how to project manage in different cultures. It makes for a more diverse, broad team and work that has better solutions.”
Graham is integrating all those learnings into his latest role: For 2026, he is the President-Elect for the PMI Maine Chapter “It’s been really fun to give back to PMI and to formalize the study of project management in the state of Maine,” he says. “Maine is a very geographically diverse state and there’s lots of great billion-dollar projects that go on here in our own backyard.” That’s taking care of Numbers 1, 2 and 3— Graham’s community.