Mourning for Ian Jones

Ian Jones passed away. He was, among other things, convenor of CEN TC10/WG1, Chair of BSI’s MHE/4 lifts, hoists and escalators committee, Chairman of LEIA’s Technical Committee and Vice President of LEIA.

LEIA is the UK trade association and advisory body for the lift and escalator industry. Esfandiar Gharibaan, Chairman of CEN/TC 10, and Nick Mellor, Managing Director of LEIA, paid tribute to his life in obituaries. We publish excerpts.

Esfandiar Gharibaan, Chairman of CEN/TC 10 (Lifts, escalators and moving walks):

"Saturday 28th November 2020 was a very sad day. On that day, Ian Jones passed away peacefully at his home in the UK. In more than 30 years of standardization work, Ian contributed enormously to National (BSI), European (CEN) and International (ISO) standards for lifts and left his marks on every standard related to lift sector.

Ian also successfully led several important working groups. As an example, he was the convenor of CEN TC10/WG1 for 11 years. Under his leadership, WG1 successfully completed its work on EN 81-20/50 and started the work on EN ISO 8100-1/2, which are global standards to succeed EN 81-20/50 in near future.

Ian was an exceptional expert with extensive experience and always ready to share his deep and wide knowledge with anyone who asked for his help. With his warm, friendly and positive approach he had made many friends around the World. Upon the sad news of his passing, there was an outpour of messages of condolences from all corners of the World.

The lift industry and the standardization organizations lost a dedicated expert, and many in the standardization community lost a very good friend. Ian is greatly missed, but his achievements and the memories of his friendship lives on."

Nick Mellor, LEIA Managing Director:

"Ian worked for Otis and before that for Evans Lifts for more than 35 years. Ian was LEIA's Vice President in 2020, a LEIA Board member, and a member of LEIA's Quality and Technical Committee for 26 years, the last 12 years as Chairman. Anyone who has attended LEIA Technical Seminars or LEIA Council meetings will have benefited from Ian's clear, friendly and authoritative guidance on technical issues.

Ian has been a member of BSI's MHE/4 Lifts, hoists and escalators Committee for 25 years which he has chaired for the last 12 years with distinction. During this time Ian has led the work of the committee including producing families of British Standards giving essential support and guidance and improving safety.

Ian has been on international and European standardisation committees for as many years and more recently he was a driving force behind the development of global lift safety standards. For this work, Ian received BSI’s International Standards Maker Award in 2014 in recognition of his outstanding contribution and also received the ISO Excellence Award.

Ian's contribution to the industry has been immense. In LEIA we have lost a good friend, mentor and staunch supporter."