Aaron D. Jenks

Founder | Strategist | Architect

Aaron’s perspective was formed through nearly three decades inside the AEC industry. He has worked as an architect, project manager, business developer, department leader, principal, firm owner, shareholder, and board member. That progression gave him a direct view of what it takes not only to produce good work, but also to build, lead, and sustain the organization responsible for delivering it.

Aaron began his architecture career in 1996 and later founded and operated his own practice. Working directly with clients, consultants, contractors, and project teams taught him that firm leadership is inseparable from the daily realities of staffing, profitability, client expectations, project delivery, and decision-making.

He later built and led an architecture department within a construction and design-build company. What began as a limited architectural function developed into a larger and more productive practice with a stronger role in the organization. The experience required Aaron to work at the intersection of design and construction while taking direct responsibility for team development, workload, client relationships, business development, financial performance, and project delivery.

Aaron subsequently spent nearly eight years helping lead a national architecture and engineering firm, serving for approximately seven years as a shareholder and board member. His responsibilities extended well beyond architecture and individual projects. He contributed to decisions involving firm strategy, organizational structure, staffing and scheduling, leadership development, human resources, marketing, business development, financial performance, governance, and ownership.

That experience exposed him to the complexity of leading a multidisciplinary practice across markets, offices, teams, and project types. He saw how decisions made in one part of a firm could create consequences somewhere else. A staffing issue might actually begin with unclear priorities. A project delivery problem might be connected to client selection, leadership capacity, or poorly defined ownership roles. A growth opportunity could become a source of friction if the organization was not designed to support it.

Across his career, Aaron has worked with clients and project teams throughout the United States on retail, entertainment, workplace, automotive, grocery, residential, and specialized technical projects. This breadth gave him experience with both individual projects and complex, multi-location programs requiring consistency, coordination, and strong client stewardship.

It also reinforced a recurring observation: architecture and engineering firms apply extraordinary discipline to designing buildings and engineered systems, yet often apply far less discipline to designing the firms that produce them.

Structures emerge over time. Responsibilities accumulate. Processes develop around immediate needs. Leadership habits become embedded. What once worked for a smaller or less complex practice can eventually constrain the firm it has become.

Aaron founded Schemata to help AEC leaders examine those conditions more clearly.

Schemata looks at the firm as five interconnected systems: Direction, People, Clients, Delivery, and Enterprise. Rather than treating organizational problems as isolated symptoms, Aaron helps leaders understand how these systems influence one another, identify the conditions behind recurring friction, and determine where focused action can make the greatest difference.

The work is grounded in practical experience. Aaron understands the pressure of balancing clients and staff, projects and profitability, present demands and long-term direction. He has participated in the difficult conversations surrounding accountability, organizational change, leadership development, succession, governance, and ownership. His role is to bring an independent perspective, ask the questions that are difficult to ask from inside the firm, and help leadership translate insight into clear priorities and accountable decisions.

Aaron also remains active in the wider AEC and client communities through industry speaking, executive education, and continued professional development in leadership, management, strategy, and organizational performance.

Schemata was not formed from an outside study of architecture and engineering firms. It grew from years spent working inside them, designing projects, developing business, building teams, managing performance, leading change, sharing ownership, and participating in governance.

Aaron works directly with every Schemata client. There is no team behind the curtain, and that is the point.

Better firms do not happen by accident. They are designed.