The timeless art of making things work better

Darren Jones is fascinated with understanding how things work so he can work to make things better. It’s an outlook he brings to his role as Engineering Manager with Lauren Services and in his personal life, too, where dedication to the practice of Aikido keeps him focused on solutions and personal accountability.

“It’s a very steep learning curve,” says Darren of the martial art which is often translated as ‘the way of unifying (with) life energy’ or as ‘the way of harmonious spirit’. “Is there a better way to go about doing something that is going to be safer or more efficient?”

Three decades of technical experience combined with an attitude of continual improvement has made Darren a key resource for younger engineers at Lauren.

“I’m a tech geek and I like the technical aspects of the work, the integration, learning new information,” he explains. “I tend to be one of the go-to people for technical issues because I’ve been doing it for so long.”

He says the Lauren team is great to work with because in addition to being good at their job, his colleagues are genuinely “good people” who want to bring value to their clients. The team spirit makes managing collaborative projects more productive, enjoyable, and ultimately successful.

Darren believes Lauren’s expansion into new and evolving sectors, such as renewables, is just the beginning of a bold new era of growth for the engineering firm as Canada invests in building a diversified economy.

“There’s so much that we can do in technology, power generation, co-generation, bio-tech, and agriculture,” he says. “I’m very much in favour of expanding those things and having a much broader economy.”

With offices in Calgary and Vancouver, Lauren Services delivers dynamic performance and intelligent design across the entire suite of engineering services.