Francis N. Beland

Francis Béland leads a multidisciplinary team and travels the world to collaborate with like-minded leaders to usher in new technologies and create tomorrow’s future, today. Meet the man we love to call Francis “Zissou” Béland. Working with private banking, innovation consulting and scientists, Francis focuses his energy in helping organizations create market disruptions for greater futures valuations and impact.

Francis previously served as a partner at Deloitte/Monitor Group (Los Angeles) from 2011 through 2013 where he was a member of the leadership team of Doblin/Monitor Innovation. Monitor, a  leading global strategy consulting firm, was founded by Harvard Business School Professor MichaelPorter; 1200 professionals worldwide serving Fortune 500 clients. In this role Francis led  Monitor’s Open Innovation practice by assisting companies in identifying and developing a systematic approach to engaging and directing external resources in finding solutions to specific business opportunities and challenges while diversifying their innovation portfolio.

Francis has extensive experience developing large-scale innovation programs in healthcare, automotive, biotech, medical devices, governments, oil & gas and energy industries. He was an open  innovation advisor to the European Commission, and an Entrepreneur in Residence for the Food and Drug Administration and he recently facilitated a discussion at the White House to develop new  innovation pathways in the medical technology sector.

From 2009-2011, Francis served as a vice president at the X PRIZE foundation (Vista, CA), where he led the capitalization of $75M worth of innovation projects in healthcare measurement and delivery,point of care tuberculosis diagnostics in Sub-Saharan Africa and India and chemically degradable non petroleum-based plastic alternatives. He increased profits of the division that he oversaw by 59% in 2009 by developing a consultancy practice and increased operational efficiency. His rich set of experiences at X PRIZE included comprehensive projects in bionics, brain-computer  interface, vision restoration, autonomous vehicles, algae bio-fuels, urban poverty, world hunger eradication, developing country social sustainability, cancer diagnostics, and water efficiency.

Francis was a partner in the legendary Cirque du Soleil Lifestyle/ Sid Lee organization from 2007-2009, where he developed the company’s creative lifestyle group by the Cirque du Soleil brand  internationally. He developed the first commercial innovation practice in the agency industry and grew Cirque du Soleil into a multi-channel organization that leveraged the creative and artistic  architecture of the company.

From 2001-2008, Francis served as the executive director of Springs Preserve and Desert Botanical Gardens (Las Vegas) where he oversaw $300M in private and public fundraising to create the first LEED certified community multi-use cultural project. 

He holds a Masters of Applied Management and a Bachelors of Oceanography & Pure Physics from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.