Frances’s 20-year career has focused on helping people to find, understand and use the information they need to make informed decisions.

Frances’ career started in rural South Africa where she worked on educational materials for community development projects. In 1996, she moved into the corporate sphere, where she held tenures at Datatec as communications strategist, and at London-based Siegel & Gale as Senior Content Strategist and Head of Content, Europe and Middle East.

Frances has worked on documents and websites for blue-chip international companies such as Capital International, Barclays Life, NatWest and Royal Mail. South African clients include Discovery, Liberty Group, Allan Gray and Hollard.

In 2005, Frances Gordon co-founded Simplified, a training and consultancy firm based in Johannesburg and Lisbon. Its services include communication and content strategy, content audits, plain-language rewrites of legal and other documents, and training.

Frances sat on the board of international plain language organisation, PLAIN (Plain Language Association InterNational) in 2010.  She is currently part of the IPLWG (International Plain Language Working Group), which comprises international experts working to professionalise the field of plain language. She also is part of the advisory committee of IC Clear, an EU-funded initiative that is developing a post-graduate course in clear communication.

Frances is a regular speaker at diverse conferences and often focuses on the need to build bridges between different areas of an organisation: legal, marketing, communications and IT professionals must work together if content is to be consistently usable and useful across the customer experience.