Francine Way is a lifelong business student. She has a broad range of topics that she is interested in and can opine to. Francine understands what is needed to operate organizations strategically, tactically, and financially. She has led over 400 cross-functional enterprise projects in her career, resulting in a cornucopia of knowledge on business, leadership, people management, process orientation, and relationship management. Francine’s expertise includes technology, media, entertainment, healthcare, food / agribusiness, retail B2C, and B2B businesses.
Most recently, Francine was the only Corporate Strategy & Development personnel at Rhapsody International, an international music streaming service company. Her corporate strategy role meant that she was responsible for industry, market, competitor research and analysis, product-market fit, pricing strategy, 5-year planning, strategic offsite, and monthly shareholder reporting package. She was also in charge of evaluating strategy and execution performance, including their implications on short-term and long-term revenue and profitability. Francine’s corporate development role meant that she was responsible for evaluating M&A and partnership transactions, working with internal and external cross-functional due diligence teams, and leading / supporting inorganic growth initiatives.
In the past, Francine was:
A strategic investments portfolio manager for Guidewell Florida Blue Cross with $900M AUM spread across nine companies ranging from a $1M ARR startup to a $300M ARR late-stage service company
A Warren V. Musser Fellow of 2016-2017 with Penn State University Great Valley
A due diligence consultant with Ben Franklin Technology Partners for the technology vertical,
A startup founder with Tamans, LLC - an e-commerce distribution platform for local organic farm-to-table food
A senior analyst for Independence Blue Cross’ Corporate Development team where she analysed 400 transactions annually for M&A, investment, partnerships, and divestiture purposes; as well as served as a spokesperson for a city-wide healthcare business plan competition that led to a corporate venture arm
A project manager for Independence Blue Cross Corporate Strategy project selection office reporting directly into the Office of the CFO
A technologist for IKEA where she had roles ranging from a software engineer, to a business analyst, to a project manager
In her spare time, Francine loves to volunteer. Her volunteering experience ranges from:
Visiting retirement homes with her dog Simba and volunteer group
Advising Mayo Clinic’s life science & healthcare startup incubator
Advising Chester County Economic Development Council on a sustainable business model and funding strategy
Advising Penn State University Great Valley’s Rev-Up startup incubator
Launching Cleantech Open’s Philadelphia chapter - Cleantech Open is an international startup accelerator for clean tech companies
Mentoring two of Temple University’s business plan competitions’ winners
Academically, Francine has a Master in Finance from Penn State University Great Valley, an MBA in Strategy from Temple University, and a Bachelor of Computer Science from St. Cloud State University. She holds a PMP (Project Management Professional) license from PMI (Project Management Institute), as well as a CC (Competent Communicator) designation from Toastmasters International.
Francine’s other hobbies include painting, reading, travel, and investing (stock, ETF, and real estate). Francine lives with her husband Kevin and dog Simba in Seattle, WA.
Francine put together this blog for people who are enthusiastic about business, assuming a moderate level of business and financial acumen on the readers' side.