Over the last 10 years, Francis has been visiting almost yearly plastic recycling facilities in China, Chinese federations of plastic recyclers, and Chinese authorities to get a good understanding of the use of plastic material sent to China for recycling, and of the remarkable evolution which took place in the Chinese plastic recycling industry over the last years.

Francis has been active in Europe for more than 20 years in organizing producer responsibility schemes for packaging. From 1994 until 1998, he was a consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, responsible for the organization of several EPR systems (packaging, batteries, etc.). For more than 15 years, Francis has been active as director of VAL-I-PAC, the Belgian take-back scheme for industrial packaging. Since 2003, he has been appointed as president of EPRO, the federation of European plastic recycling and recovery organizations. EPRO has 18 members from 15 countries (members from European countries, Canada and South-Africa).

Francis holds a PhD in Agricultural Sciences and a Master in Business Management.