diff --git a/examples/hello/bpWriter/CMakeLists.txt b/examples/hello/bpWriter/CMakeLists.txt
index ffd7d017bcedc54808f4abc5ac19957db0a32394..3518b42787191b823fce4f840f9275693867b8f3 100644
--- a/examples/hello/bpWriter/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/examples/hello/bpWriter/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 if(ADIOS_USE_MPI)
   find_package(MPI COMPONENTS C REQUIRED)
   add_executable(hello_bpWriter helloBPWriter.cpp)
-  target_include_directories(hello_bpWriter ${MPI_C_INCLUDE_PATH})
+  target_include_directories(hello_bpWriter PRIVATE ${MPI_C_INCLUDE_PATH})
   target_link_libraries(hello_bpWriter adios2 ${MPI_C_LIBRARIES})
 endif()
 
diff --git a/examples/hello/timeBP/CMakeLists.txt b/examples/hello/timeBP/CMakeLists.txt
index 7a859cd13e127a4ad23fa7837c3bbfeb2bd6c8c9..a0e38282532c2bf6cd2c2c726a809e2dd2ea2cac 100644
--- a/examples/hello/timeBP/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/examples/hello/timeBP/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ if(ADIOS_USE_MPI)
   find_package(MPI COMPONENTS C REQUIRED)
   add_executable(hello_timeBPWriter timeBPWriter.cpp)
   target_link_libraries(hello_timeBPWriter adios2)
-  target_include_directories(hello_timeBPWriter ${MPI_C_INCLUDE_PATH})
+  target_include_directories(hello_timeBPWriter PRIVATE ${MPI_C_INCLUDE_PATH})
   target_link_libraries(hello_timeBPWriter adios2 ${MPI_C_LIBRARIES})
 endif()