More than 27 years in strategic leadership and execution, serving as Board Member for publicly traded Clientele Life South Africa, the Organizational Board of IFA, 4Life Direct London, 4Life Direct Poland and 4Life Direct Hungary. Francois cut his teeth at Clientele Life where he won several awards in growing their insurance business for the group and very shortly afterwards took over as CEO of the IFA Organization, a distribution business for Clientele Life in South Africa. After growing this business to over 2 million members and more than 25,000 distributors, he moved his family to Oxford UK and joined 4Life Direct International as a partner to expand insurance operations in Europe. After a stint as CEO of 4Life Direct Poland, Francois took over the role as SVP of Recruitment, Training and New Business Development to expand the business into Hungary, Czech, Slovakia, and Greece, whilst remaining on as President for 4Life Direct Poland.
In 2019, Francois exited out of the insurance operations in Europe, took a sabbatical to finish his 2nd Master's degree and spend time with his family after which business interests drew Francois and his family to Austin Texas, where he is now involved with the Better Business Bureau, as well as, several startups including a pet retail and insurance business, as well as, an electric vehicle conversion concept.
Francois graduated from Hult International Business School with an MBA and from King's College London with a MSC in Marketing. He is also Alumni Chapter Lead for Hult in Texas. Francois took over the role of Strategic Partnership at American Marketing Association Austin in 2021 and was appointed as President in 2022.