Francis Béland
VP, Prize Development
X PRIZE Foundation
Francis comes to The X PRIZE Foundation with more than 17 years of experience in large-scale project design, development and funding. This experience will allow him, as VP, Prize Development, to help the Foundation achieve its aggressive goal to fund and launch ten new prizes over the next five years. Prior to joining The X PRIZE Foundation, Francis served as vice president and partner at Montreal-based Sid Lee, an industry leader in commercial creativity. During his time as VP and partner, Francis helped global brands like Cirque Du Soleil, Red Bull and Adidas recognize the commercial potential of creativity by creating brand experiences through products, services and spaces. He also helped market these experiences through advertising, branded content and interactive communications.
Trained in oceanography, Francis started his career building large-scale aquarium attractions around the globe, including the the Biodôme, the Biosphere, the Vancouver Aquarium and the Shark Reef Aquarium. Francis made his mark in the Las Vegas skyline in 1999 with the design and creation of the Shark Reef Aquarium. A $50M project that broke all the rules in traditional collection-based attraction: a fully-themed immersive experience in the underwater world of earth deadliest predators. The Shark Reef aquarium went on to win Las Vegas’ best family attraction for years running. In a creative leadership role, Francis went on the break new grounds in the design of a new immersive and multi-disciplinary public attractions, the Springs Preserve. The Springs Preserve is today one of America’s greenest community-led tourism attractions having the first two Platinum LEED public venues in North America. A $500M project, the Springs Preserve has become a strong public education asset for the community of Las Vegas and with an impressive public outreach and marketing initiatives, the tourism market now has a place where they can learn and appreciate this city they call ‘The Meadows.
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