Alan Montgomery Jones (born September 1964) is a chartered architect and academic based in Northern Ireland, UK.
He was elected as president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for two years from 1 September 2019, the first person from Northern Ireland to hold that office.
[citation needed] Having previously worked with London-based Michael Hopkins and Partners for seven years, and as an associate with David Morley Architects, Jones returned to Northern Ireland in 1998 to take up private practice as founder and principal of Alan Jones Architects (AJA), and to teach in the School of Architecture at Queen's University Belfast.
[citation needed] Through over 100 role models, his "Success through Architecture" project documents the diversity of mainstream practice and the "extended profession" within other areas of business and culture.
[citation needed] Jones has been a member of the governing council and trustee of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects from 1998 to 2006 and from 2007.
In 2018 he was invited to join the executive committee of the Commonwealth Association of Architects, to guide work on equivalence and transferability of professional qualifications across numerous countries.
While president, Jones appeared on BBC Two's Christmas University Challenge in December 2020, answering one question – incorrectly – for the Queen's, Belfast team.
[citation needed] On 31 March 2020, Jones announced that he was stepping back temporarily from his leadership role, saying that "a matter had arisen" in his personal life.
[21] Architects' Journal columnist Paul Finch observed the RIBA's "secretariat goes into overdrive, dragging in the Charities Commission [sic]...", and downplayed the matter ("The kerfuffle at Portland Place is a presidential-sized fuss over nothing"),[22] and Archinect expected Jones would serve out his full two-year term.
Confidentiality has been weaponised and woe betide anyone who wants to ask difficult questions...."[29] On 27 July 2021, Architects' Journal reported that, prior to his reinstatement as president in June 2020, Jones had been pressed into several "undertakings".
In a memo to the board, Jones explained: "These undertakings prevented me from asking questions, calling people out and raising complaints.
"[31] After completing his two-year tenure as RIBA president, Jones talked to Architects' Journal in September 2021, revealing that he had come under pressure from senior staff to resign.