Patricia R. Francis is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. Francis is also the chair of the government of Jamaica’s Trade Facilitation Task Force. She is also a director of the Alligator Head Foundation and the Rose Town Foundation for the Built Environment.

Francis served twice as president of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies and as chairperson of the China Caribbean Business Council. In 2016, she headed the United Nations (UN) Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. From 2018 to 2020, she was special advisor to the executive director of UN Women. Francis was also a member of the UK House of Lords All Parliamentary Group, where she worked on trade with Commonwealth of Nations members, and the Eminent Persons Group, where she worked on British relations with African, Caribbean, and Pacific commonwealth states. Francis served as assistant secretary general and executive director of the International Trade Center, where she worked from 2006 to 2013. She was the president of Jamaica Promotions Corporation from 1995 to 2006.

Francis is a board member of Jamaica Producers Group, Portland JSX, Whiteshield Partners of Public Policy & Strategy, and the advisory board of IESE Graduate Business School. Francis received the Commander of the Order of Civil Merit by the government of Spain in 2006 and the Order of Distinction in the Class of Commander by the government of Jamaica in 2015. In 2024, she was named Caribbean Women in Trade’s International Woman of the Year.