The best project managers tend to share a particular quality: they listen before they act, communicate before they assume, and follow through on what they commit to. For Hildana Demessie, Assistant Project Manager at Ubique Risk Management, that is not just professional practice. It is a principle that runs through everything she does.
Hildana joined Ubique in June 2025 as a summer intern, having recently graduated from Liverpool John Moores University with a degree in Business Management. Within months, she had been offered a part-time role as Business Administrator. By the end of the year, she had been promoted to Assistant Project Manager. It has, in her own words, been a journey she is deeply grateful for.
Hildana was born and raised in Ethiopia, where watching her parents manage their business resulted in an early interest in business management. That curiosity led her to choose Business Management at IGCSE and International Baccalaureate level before bringing her to LJMU, where she completed her degree.
Her route into project management was built through a combination of academic commitment and practical experience. During her final year at university, she was part of a team brought together by her lecturer and Ubique’s Kate Farnell to deliver a real-world project supporting carers returning to work, helping people rebuild their confidence, refresh their CVs, and prepare to re-enter employment after time away. It was a formative experience, one that demonstrated what structured, people-centred project delivery could achieve and confirmed the direction she wanted her career to take.
When Kate offered her an internship at Ubique at the close of that project, Hildana accepted. The rest followed from there.
Hildana’s work sits at the heart of project governance and delivery coordination. She primarily supports highways and transport infrastructure programmes, working across multidisciplinary teams on governance, reporting, stakeholder engagement, and programme coordination.
Her expertise lies in producing clear, accurate project documentation, capturing decisions and actions with precision, and ensuring that the right information reaches the right people at the right time. In complex, multi-stakeholder environments, that is a delivery-critical function. When meetings are documented well, decisions are traceable. When actions are tracked consistently, accountability follows. When communications are clear, projects move.
What Hildana takes most satisfaction from is exactly that contribution: supporting the governance infrastructure that keeps complex programmes on track, and knowing that the records she produces help senior teams make better, faster, more informed decisions.
Ask Hildana what makes a project succeed, and her answer is clear: communication, collaboration, and accountability. When everyone understands the objectives, knows their responsibilities, and is kept informed of the decisions being made, projects are far more likely to achieve the outcomes they set out to deliver.
Her advice to anyone managing complexity reflects the same thinking. Never underestimate the importance of good communication. Complex projects involve many moving parts, and keeping stakeholders informed, documenting decisions clearly, and maintaining strong working relationships can make all the difference between a project that delivers and one that drifts.
What motivates her professionally is something she describes with both clarity and sincerity. Her faith is a significant source of direction, encouraging her to approach her work with integrity, to serve the people around her well, and to keep learning in every opportunity she is given. At Ubique, those values have found a practical home.
Outside of work, Hildana enjoys getting outdoors, whether that is a bike ride, a walk, or what she cheerfully describes as more of a steady jog than a sprint. She is fairly new to running, but she is enjoying the journey, which, for someone who has made the most of every opportunity placed in front of her, seems entirely in character.
To find out more about how Ubique Risk Management supports complex infrastructure and public sector programmes, visit our project management page.
