The PM profession and one barrier in its evolution to executive levels

Project Management Profession is always growing and also its knowledge base, making it very valuable in doing business. But, there are some factors that sometimes prevent the profession to evolve toward an executive level. In my opinion, one of the most important factors is in one question: what is the real purpose of a company in contracting a project manager? Many companies, over the past years, were thinking the role of project managers as simple tasks coordinators, and for that profile, no one see the need to have a certified professional. The only requirement was technical knowledge about the work to be coordinated. This days, some companies have realized that project management and even more, PMO and OPM, are a way to deliver strategy and to add business value, along with continuous improvement to maintain competitive advantage. Today, with the current advance in the profession knowledge and professionalisms, a company having non certified project managers, is like a hospital with no graduated doctors. When I get my first job as an engineer, the company asked me to show the engineer college degree. When a company hires a CEO, the most probably is that he or she must have an MBA. In this scenario, shouldn’t the companies hire really qualified project managers? Shouldn’t be a PMP certification a must for hire a project manager? What can project managers professionals and its institutions, like PMI, do, in order to protect and preserve the profession and get companies making the change? Shouldn’t this kind of changes help the profession to get to executives levels?