Francesca Hopwood-Road joined to lead the BIS Innovation Hub London Centre in February 2022. She previously headed up the Financial Conduct Authority’s RegTech and SupTech programme of work, leading a department of 50 data scientists, engineers, technologists and business change and comms specialists. In this role, she created a diverse and inclusive culture enabling the identification and exploration of cutting edge data science techniques and their application to financial services regulation including the world first Digital Sandbox and suite of SupTech tools. She was the inaugural Chair of the GFIN’s RegTech & SupTech programme, judged at international TechSprints and drove the vision and execution of the Global Women’s Economic Empowerment TechSprint (2021). 

Prior to this she worked in a variety of roles at the FCA, leading the development and delivery of new areas of work including developing early identification and insight functions. Earlier in her career she worked in the public and private sector on issues around financial capability and inclusion from both the policy and delivery perspective.  

She holds a MSc in Global Politics from Birkbeck, University of London and a BA in Politics from the University of Durham.