Francois Retief is an electronic engineering graduate of the University of Stellenbosch. His career began as a field engineer with RACAL (now Thales) on early commercial GSM/GPS telemetry systems, followed by systems engineering roles developing mobile and telematics systems, systems engineering management at Astrata Systems, and project and systems engineering management at MiX Telematics.
He founded a consulting company for complex technology system development, and CTI states that he was the first presenter of its International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) SEP exam-preparation course. He was also a founding member and Chief Operating Officer of the digital audio platform iono.fm.
He was a founding member and first chairperson of the Western Cape Branch of INCOSE, has served as an INCOSE ambassador, and has been a guest lecturer on systems engineering at the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch.