Founded on the conviction that clarity of direction is where transformative work begins.
Aretee was founded on a simple observation: institutions facing complex transformation rarely struggle with technical capability. They struggle with clarity — about who they want to become, what they are trying to solve, and why those questions matter before design and delivery begin.
Francesca Birks
Francesca is a strategist, facilitator, and foresight practitioner with deep experience in institutional transformation, campus and civic futures, and the design of complex learning and innovation ecosystems.
Prior to founding Aretee, she held senior strategy and foresight roles at Arup and Woods Bagot, working with institutions across higher education, civic, and urban sectors on their most consequential strategic challenges.
At Arup, she created the original Drivers of Change demographics cards, a futures tool adopted across the firm's global practice.
A Principal-Led Practice
Francesca works with a select group of strategists, designers, and facilitators whose expertise is matched to each engagement, and who believe in the value of the work.
The team brings together experience across institutional strategy, facilitation, and the built environment, with a track record of translating complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives into clear direction. Clients include research universities, major design and engineering firms, and institutions planning for the next generation of applied sciences, arts, and technology facilities. The work has been recognized for its ability to make the difficult legible: resolving the strategic questions that precede design, and producing direction that holds.
How We Work
Signals & Systems
Our Core Values
With over two decades of experience as design strategists, innovation consultants, and foresight practitioners, we believe in the importance of evidence-based and creative approaches to designing a future that aligns organizational goals with its future users.
Innovation
We believe in the importance of sparking positive future change.
Co-Creation
We partner with our clients to co-create optimal futures and user experiences.
Inclusivity
We build teams that harness the power of collective intelligence.
Quality
We are uncompromising in our pursuit of authenticity and integrity.
Fiona Cousins
Chair, Arup Americas
Troy D’Ambrosio
VP of Innovation, University of Utah
Siqi Zhu
Former Director of Planning, Sidewalk Labs
Associate Principal & Director of Planning and Urban Technology, Sasaki
FAQs
We've included a list of FAQs to help answer some initial questions but don't hesitate to contact us if you have other questions.
We want to keep it easy. Just hit any of the contact us buttons and we will do our best to respond in a timely manner. We understand that everyone is busy!
Our primary service areas include facilitation, design strategy, and foresight consulting. We have also been engaged in conducting research, curating cultural event programming, and developing thought leadership reports.
We have worked with clients across several sectors like architecture, engineering, construction, and technology, however, we primarily choose to work with clients in education, the public sector, and AEC. That's short for architecture, engineering, and construction! This is a FAQ section after all.
If you visit the work section of our site on the upper righthand corner, you will find examples of projects we've delivered in the past.
The correct spelling is arete; in Greek philosophy, it means excellence, goodness, fulfillment, or virtue. These are cultural aspirations and mirror some of our core values as a collective. The word is pronounced "arte" which reminds us of art, which we love, and arête, and that's French for stop.