Francesca is an innovation strategist with a keen interest in social, economic and environmental impact. Her professional background spans urban regeneration, regional economic development, housing, education, grassroots community development – and she’s worked to forge public, private, third sector and academic partnerships to drive systems and place-based change her entire career.  

 

As Head of Innovation for SHIFT, Francesca is establishing SHIFT: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s innovation agency and partnership.  SHIFT positions the Olympic Park as a national innovation asset, with a physical and digital testbed for innovation, robust support structures to help scale impactful innovation and with an ecosystem of 150+ organisations.  SHIFT organises its work around solving some of the biggest issues we face in modern city life: tackling the climate emergency, improving health and wellbeing, and upgrading mobility systems. The mission-led model has inclusive and responsible innovation at its heart.