He started his career with KPMG (1986-1990) and then the M&A department of Banque de Gestion Privee (1990-1994).

He joined the AXA Group in Paris in 1994 as Deputy General Manager of the Corporate Finance Group and was then appointed Head of Strategy and Corporate Development for the AXA Group in 1996. In 1998, he became Executive Vice President for the Asia Pacific Life Insurance Division based in Melbourne and Board member of AXA Asia Pacific Holdings, one of the largest market capitalisation in Australia.

In 2000, he was appointed Chief Executive Asian Operations of AXA Asia Pacific Holdings supervising 7 AXA operations in Asia and then Head of Strategy for AXA Asia Pacific Holdings.

In 2005, he returned to the AXA Group headquarters in Paris to supervise several AXA country operations in Europe (AXA France, AXA UK, AXA Ireland, AXA Assistance, AXA Direct, AXA Corporate Solutions).

After 6 years in this role reporting to the Deputy CEO of the AXA Group, he decided to return to Melbourne in Australia for family reasons in 2011 and was then offered a role as Head of Strategy for the National Australia Bank wealth division.

In 2013, he left NAB to found his own investment and advisory company Astrolabe Pty Ltd which invests in and advises on new ventures in particular between French and Australian companies.. In 2016, François joined Altaventure to develop cross border transactions between France and Australia.

He was President of the French Australian Chamber of Commerce from 2002 to 2004 and remains an active Board member of the Chamber as well as a Conseiller du Commerce Exterieur de la France.

Francois is a graduate of ESCP (1985) and Harvard (AMP 2001). He also holds a Master of Law from Paris II university (1986) and a diploma of European Financial Analyst (1993).In 2016, he graduated from the Australian Institute of Company Directors (A.I.C.D.).