Francois is a leadership educator at heart. He believes that catalytic growth can occur when individuals connect deeply to a learning moment. Using innovative experiential designs and facilitation, Francois offers individuals and teams creative opportunities to grow their effectiveness and gain new perspectives on themselves and their organizations.

Specializing in adaptive leadership, adult development, and team interventions, Francois has spent the last 20 years focused on serving internal and external partners going through change efforts in the corporate, non-profit and Higher Education sectors. Francois co-founded a graduate program for experiential educators at Westminster College. He has taught or co-taught leadership and organizational change courses at Harvard University, Teachers College Columbia University, and the University of Pittsburgh where he is currently an adjunct professor. His research focuses on adult development and leadership education. He recently contributed a chapter in the book Social Justice Leadership for a Global World on the dispositions that facilitate leaders to learn from their failures. Francois’ love for leadership education and the outdoors converge in his deep resume of guiding people on wilderness expeditions as powerful classrooms for leadership growth.

Francois holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh where he was involved in the radical redesign of the Principal Certificate Program. Francois utilizes powerful tools for those leaders ready to take a deeper dive into their development. He is a trained practitioner with the Leadership Circle Profile™, the Immunity to Change™ process, Core Communication™ and the Subject-Object Interview.

In his free time, Francois can be found with his wife, dust-covered in the midst of renovating a home from the 1890’s in the East End of Pittsburgh or sharing time with his children as they discover the world.