Francesca Birks

Francesca Birks is Principal and Founder of Aretee Consulting, where she specializes in strategic sensemaking and works upstream of design and delivery to help organizations navigate complexity during moments of transformation. With over 20 years of progressive leadership experience in the design industry, she brings deep expertise from 15 years leading Foresight and Strategic Design at Arup in the Americas and two years as Global Insights Director at Woods Bagot. Operating at the intersection of strategic foresight, participatory design, and cultural analysis, Birks partners with senior leadership teams to translate complexity into shared vision, strategic clarity, and actionable direction. Her work focuses particularly on higher education institutions and AEC design firms, helping them build strategic capacity and align leadership around critical decisions that enable better outcomes downstream.