Frances Bohley carried SRI's name, its logo, its programs, and its reputation to many parts of the world, opening the door for SRI professionals in their pursuit of multi-client and multi-country contracts in many fields of science, engineering, and business consulting. Fran and her associates were prime movers in expanding relationships with companies and executives in 50 or more countries.
Frances Bohley was an employee of SRI for about 26 years, beginning in 1954. She was Director of the SRI International Secretariat from July 1957 onward. The Secretariat, now a part of SRI's Executive Programs, was responsible for maintaining relationships with SRI's International Associates world wide.
During this entire time, very few people at SRI's headquarters knew Fran because she traveled so frequently abroad. Occasionally, she accompanied Dr. Gibson, but more often she traveled with members of her Secretariat staff. Her mission was to assist in arranging SRI-sponsored International Business Conferences in the major cities of Europe, Russia, South America, Japan, and throughout the Pacific Basin.
Fran played a key role in inaugurating the SRI International Industrial Conferences, which are still held every four years in San Francisco. The first was cosponsored by Time-Life with the personal support of Henry Luce, publisher. Since then, they have been co-sponsored by The Conference Board.
In arranging these conferences, Dr. Gibson traveled from country to country, meeting with senior business executives and government officials to negotiate conference objectives and principal themes. Fran generally followed later, meeting with the same executives and officials to reach agreement on specific topics and appropriate speakers—some local, some from other countries, and many from SRI. She also participated in the very sensitive task of preparing Invitation Lists, because all SRI Conferences were by invitation only, and all were routinely oversubscribed.
Fran was always meticulously prepared for meeting and negotiations, and because of her flawless demeanor and political sense, she quickly gained the respect of officials and executives at all levels. Henry Luce referred to her as "SRI's Treasure," and SRI Board Chairmen often described her as a "jewel" with global ties.