Yves François is a firm owner who defies convention. The 45-year-old designer was born in Haiti but spent most of his childhood in Brooklyn. In 1986, he earned an architecture degree from the New York Institute of Technology and went on to work for 10 years at Pepsico as a facility manager and architectural consultant. He later held similar positions at Philip Morris and Cablevision.
In 2004, after nearly two decades working in corporate America, François started re-evaluating his life. “You finally reach a threshold. There’s got to be more to life than making a six-figure salary,” he says. In addition to foutnding a Brooklyn-based development company that specializes in rehabilitating old properties, François began focusing his energy on Haiti.