Gaye Francis
Apto PPE Founder & Managing Director
Gaye Francis (BE MIEAUST) has over two decades experience as an engineering professional who is sought by organisations across Australia and New Zealand to conducts high level due diligence to make safe, effective and compliant decisions. Her passion is to ensure organisations identify all hazards and incidence and implement practical and reasonable precautions to manage them.
In 2013, she was one of the founding members for Australia’s first, fit-for-purpose, women’s PPE range: Apto. She remains Managing Director and is committed to women working in male dominated industries knowing they no longer need to wear ill-fitting, men’s PPE and can be safe, comfortable and stylish onsite in correct fitting workwear.
My role in the PPE space came after my involvement with the Women in Engineering. As Co-Chair we set up a working group associate with ill-fitting PPE.
As a committee we’d question that there was nothing out there that women could wear that feels comfortable and fits properly.
But I had my safety due diligence hat on and this rang alarm bells.
As a consultant I didn’t always go on site, but I was hearing all these stories that women didn’t feel safe because of the PPE they were having to wear – downsized menswear that wasn’t fit for purpose in any way.
For me, a big part of what Apto PPE stands for is to encourage women into leadership roles. I don’t think it’s fair that we encourage kids to come through into STEM careers and then we don’t have the infrastructure for them to stay for a long and sustainable career.
I think to provide PPE and leadership positions for those women coming up is half the battle. It’s about providing options and demonstrating to women we care about their safety and comfort as much as men; and it’s not an additional burden to cater to them.
Gaye is also Managing Director of R2A Due Diligence Engineers, with her primary role being to solve complex technical issues within the context of various regulatory frameworks. Her client experience ranges from the private and government sectors and a wide-spectrum of industries including road, rail, marine, mining, aviation and water.
She has also shared her knowledge of due diligence and governance as Co-Author of the R2A text publications, “Engineering Due Diligence – How to Demonstrate SFAIRP” and “Criminal Manslaughter & How Not To Do It”, and has presented at many conferences.
Outside of R2A and Apto, Gaye is an active member of Risk Management Expert, Powerline Bushfire Safety Committee and has previous Committee experience with Engineers Australia National Committee of Women in Engineering, Engineers Australia Revision of the Safety Case Guidelines, Victorian Women in Engineering, 15th International Conference for Women Engineers & Scientists 2011 (ICWES15) in Adelaide, and Engineers Australia Emerging Leaders pilot program.
She is mother to two young daughters, one of whom helped provide the pregnancy bump for Apto’s maternity rang prototypes.
