Luis Lavena

As Group Engineering Director, Luis drives the agency’s engineering principles, methodologies and processes. He is an advocate of Behavior Driven Development and believes that business and technology should work closely together in order to identify real value. Since joining AREA 17 in 2007, his key client engagements include Krrb, BurdaStyle, Facebook, Webby Awards, Vice, Dering Hall and Charlie Rose.

Collaboration is key with Luis. A leader in the open source community, he loves to bring people together to do extraordinary things. For 8 years, he maintained the One-Click Ruby Installer, for which he won the ‘Ruby Hero’ award in 2010. Luis is also one of the few engineers in the Americas who have access and commit permission to the Ruby source code.

Before joining AREA 17, Luis ran a technical consulting company specializing in software and hardware solutions for the video broadcasting industry. The high demands of that industry coupled with the need for non-stop service developed his “acquired taste” for sustainable systems.