About Us
Award Winning Consultancy.
Bringing over 30 years of expertise in commercial interior design, construction management and sustainable design consulting
Jennifer Simpson
Director of Design & Sustainability
Keith Furones
Director of Construction Management & Project Development
Jennifer Simpson has been a professional
interior and facilities designer for over
three decades, working on large-scale
commercial projects. Eight years of her
career were spent in Dhahran, Saudi
Arabia as an interior space architect for
the Arabian American Oil Company
(ARAMCO). She was part of a small team
responsible for the design, tenant finish,
FF&E and move coordination for 4,000,000 square feet of facilities: office buildings, medical facilities, schools and executive housing, including the home of OPEC Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi. She also functioned as a project manager for the construction of ARAMCO’s Light Industrial Park. The ARAMCO experience allowed her to traverse the globe over twenty times and fine tune her passion for tropical and ethnic design.
Back home in Colorado, nine years were spent as a facilities designer and project manager for the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy, most notably at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where the green building movement originated. There she designed twelve buildings, including the National Wind Technology Center, the DOE Visitors Center and the Solar Energy Research Facility (SERF), which was dedicated by Vice President Al Gore and later awarded a National Endowment for the Arts from the White House. Her years at NREL established a career in sustainable design.
In 1998 she and Keith Furones formed Simpson Furones Partnership. In 2006 the company opened an office in Panama, expanding as Simpson Furones International. Projects there included the first LEED Gold and the first LEED Commercial Interiors certifications in the country.
2007-2014, she led the Environmental Committee for the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Panama as President. Her accomplishments through the committee included the creation of the Panama Green Building Council (PGBC) and the advancement of the recycling movement in Panama City, resulting in a Corporate Social Responsibility award for their company.
Panamanian projects included the design, FF&E specification, procurement and logistics for Panama Pacifico’s Visitors Center, Caterpillar Inc’s Customer and Training Centers, Lacoste Corporate Headquarters, Under Armour Headquarters, and two historic hotels in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Casco Antiguo. From 2015-2023 her work was focused on the Sofitel Legend Hotel Casco Viejo, the 2023 recipient of the Conde Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Award for Top Ten Hotels in the Caribbean and Central America.
Her work has been published in magazines such as Contract Design, Green Building & Design, Interiors & Sources, Panama Green and Photon. She has lectured throughout the United States and Panama on green building, including NEOCON/The Building Show in Chicago, two consecutive years at the Sustainable Building Practices Conference in California and at Panama’s Expo CAPAC and COCAL. Her professional affiliations have included the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), the Institute of Business Designers, the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA).
In 2022 Simpson Furones International relocated to the Mayan Riviera of Mexico with a focus on the hospitality industry.
Keith Furones achieved a well-respected
career in Project Management 1985-2002
along the front range of Colorado. Clients
included Federal, Technology,
Manufacturing, and University sectors of
the state’s rapidly growing economy.
In 1998, he formed Simpson Furones
Partnership, LLC where he practiced
Project Development in a consultant’s role. As a member of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) he implemented CSI practices in all his projects and has a broad-based background in green building construction methods and materials. He developed expertise in environmental issues, as they pertain to water purification, when he headed up the highly sensitive University of Colorado Mountain Research Center’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. For this project, he coordinated six different government agencies by implementing virtual construction management, a novel tool at its time, and daily project updates via a dedicated website. The environmental focus of this project was the protection of the habitat for the endangered species Colorado Native Greenback Trout in nearby Como Creek.
The latter part of his career has been devoted to Resort, Mixed Use, and Infrastructure projects in Latin America, all with an emphasis on green building and sustainable design. For the past 24 years, work has led him to both coasts of Mexico as well as Belize and Ecuador. A permanent office was established in Panama in 2006 as Simpson Furones International. In 2022 the office was relocated to the Mayan Riviera of Mexico.
From 2012-2014 he was the Director of the Architecture, Construction and Engineering Committee (ACE) for the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Panama (AMCHAM). Due to this role, he was frequently called upon to speak to foreign investors and introduce top foreign companies to the markets of Panama, focused on the reduction of risk for international companies, and implementing cost and schedule improvement through design, procurement, and construction efficiencies.
Panamanian projects included the Panama Pacifico Visitors Center, three LEED projects at the City of Knowledge, the historic Hotel Herrera, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Gamboa Labs, and numerous projects in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Casco Antiguo including the Sofitel Legend Hotel Casco Viejo.
The company has been featured in a variety of publications including Photon Magazine, the international journal on solar energy. Additional areas of expertise include the design and development of luxury prefab structures for resort and residential applications. These structures eliminate tropical degradation such as rust, mold and mildew. They incorporate many green building features including minimum impact foundations, a major benefit in tropical terrain.
