Fleur Francois is the Director of the Measurement Standards Laboratory, New Zealand’s national metrology institute, where she leads a group of approximately 30 physicists and engineers.

She has a PhD in Biochemistry and worked as a scientist at Mt Sinai School of Medicine in New York City on drugs to treat diabetes and prevent HIV transmission.

She has worked in the public sector for over 14 years in a range of policy and operational leadership roles: including the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA), Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry of Health, and Callaghan Innovation. Her policy work has spanned regulation of genetically modified organisms, marine environmental management such as developing the Exclusive Economic Zone Act, establishing the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), childhood obesity, and developing New Zealand's first social impact bond.

You can follow her on Twitter @DrFleurNZ