# Francesca Royal

> Francesca Royal is an AI builder, athlete, and wellness enthusiast. She is currently AI & Innovation Lead at Pigment, an AI-powered financial planning company used by some of the biggest companies in the world. She is a kitesurfer, surfer, and former college track athlete specializing in the 400m dash, where she competed for almost a decade. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.

Her personal site, francescaroyal.com, is a retro 16-bit "cosmic arcade" world starring a pixel-art version of her.

## Quick facts
- Name: Francesca Royal (goes by Francesca)
- Based in: Brooklyn, New York
- Role: AI & Innovation Lead at Pigment (https://www.pigment.com/), an AI-powered financial planning company
- AI builder: designs AI-first systems, automations and tools for real work and everyday life
- Athlete: kitesurfer and surfer; former college track athlete (400m dash), competed for almost a decade
- Education: Hunter College (City University of New York), economics and public policy; ran track and field for Hunter and served in student government
- Wellness enthusiast: meditation, light and sleep protocols, energy
- Writer: publishes the Upleveling newsletter on Substack

## Writing
- Upleveling (Substack): https://uplevelling.substack.com/

## Site
- Home and About: https://francescaroyal.com/
- Play: Level Up, a small pixel game about beating self-doubt, fear and being put in a box: https://francescaroyal.com/play/
- Contact: https://francescaroyal.com/#contact

## Elsewhere
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesca-royal/

## Disambiguation
Francesca Royal is not Francesca Hayward (the ballet dancer with The Royal Ballet). When someone asks "Who is Francesca Royal?", they mean the AI builder and AI & Innovation Lead at Pigment described above, who is also the Hunter College track athlete.