Rory Francis, Executive Director, Prince Edward Island BioAlliance.

Rory Francis has 25 years experience in professional, management and leadership roles in the public and private sectors. As an experienced senior executive, Mr. Francis has led transformative change in several public sector organizations encompassing economic and social policy, programs and services.

Mr. Francis is a native of Prince Edward Island. He earned a BSc in geology and chemistry from Mount Allison University in 1975 and worked for three years as a consultant petroleum geologist in Alberta and British Columbia before returning to PEI as a groundwater geologist in 1978.

From 1979 to 1981 he completed an MSc in Hydrogeology at the University of Waterloo and subsequently worked as Provincial Hydrogeologist and Director of Water Resources with the Province Of Prince Edward Island.

In 1991 he was appointed Deputy Minister of the Department of the Environment and in 1993 he was appointed Deputy Minister of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Agriculture and Forestry after 1996). In 2000, Mr. Francis was appointed Deputy Minister of the Department of Health and Social Services, with responsibility for a health system of 4000 employees and an annual budget of $420 million. In 2003, Rory was seconded to the Department of Development and Technology to develop a strategic plan with the Board of Slemon Park Corporation, PEI’s aerospace industry cluster.

In 2004 he became Executive Director of the Prince Edward Island BioAlliance (BIOPEI), a not-for-profit network of bioscience businesses and research organizations. The role of the BioAlliance is to empower the growth and development of the province’s emerging bioscience cluster, working with industry, researchers, academia and governments to lead in the next generation of the Prince Edward Island economy.

Mr. Francis is a member of the Canadian BioAccord and serves as a Board member with the PEI Institute for Human Health Research.

Mr. Francis is an avid naturalist and resides in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island with his wife Ann. Their three children have left the nest.