Office: D. Litman Research Lab 1 (RL-1), Office 132
Ron Duren Jr. joined the Engineering Management Program as an instructor in 2015, directly after graduating from the program. Prior to this he spent 18 years in the corporate world with a Fortune 500 company as a Mechanical Engineer in the data storage industry. He has extensive experience managing outsourced global project teams in Asia. As a design engineer, he is the owner of four design patents.
He owns a leadership coaching and consulting practice and is a podcast host. He specializes in leadership development and training executives to perform at their best in high pressure environments. A personal area of interest is performance psychology and neuroscience, in sports and business. His belief is that understanding how our brains work is the secret to success in your arena of choice.
In his free time, he is a licensed pilot and aviation enthusiast, trained to fly aerobatics. He spent five grueling years building an award-winning aerobatic airplane and mentors local high school students in aircraft construction. In March 2014, he was the test pilot for maiden flight of his airplane, and now flies it all over the United States. Additionally, he is an Ironman triathlete, 50-mile ultrarunner, TEDx and keynote speaker as well as an author.
In a former life, he was a long-time semi-professional baseball player. Once competing in an exhibition game at Coors Field. He also spent a season as a rodeo bull rider, which as you can imagine, brings a unique perspective to managing high pressure situations.
Nowadays he is passionate about serving others, teaching, and coaching the next generation of leaders and partnering with captains of industry. He is a project management professional (PMP) and a graduate of Seth Godin’s altMBA leadership intensive. He is also a certified business coach and trainer/facilitator.
He sits on the executive committee for the Center of Leadership as well as the EMP's graduate committee. Duren holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, along with a master's degree in Engineering Management from the University of Colorado.