Angeline Francis Khoo

Angeline Francis Khoo is founder and chief executive of Rosie On Fire, a luxury kimono brand that blends high-end fashion with social impact.

 

Rosie On Fire

Launched in 2013, Rosie On Fire is a purpose-driven fashion company that puts into practice Angeline’s combined passion for business, social impact and fashion retail. Inspired by the challenges faced by her autistic siblings in finding work, Angeline Francis Khoo founded Rosie On Fire to both fill a gap in the market in creating easy, glamorous

pieces for women, and stable, meaningful job opportunities for marginalised people often excluded from the workforce.

Angeline is passionate about hiring talented people from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially women at risk of exploitation and young people from low-income families. More than 95 percent of the clothing lines produced at Rosie On Fire are made from people that come from marginalised communities. 

By taking a holistic approach to professional development, Angeline Francis Khoo encourages her team members all commit half a day a month to volunteering at places meaningful to them, which have included refugee centres, orphanages, or homeless shelters.

Central to the business is the belief that prioritising company culture is fundamental to the success of the company and its team. Recognising that the team’s well-being is not only good business practice but enriches their quality of life, Angeline Francis Khoo has introduced initiatives such as education allowances for employees with children, flexible working hours, mental health days, and special medical care and allowances based on personal circumstances. 

Since founding, the company has made a name for itself through designing high-end kimonos that are sexy, flirty and flattering for all figures, and it has grown into a global luxury fashion and lifestyle brand. The business now has offices in London, UK; Victoria, Canada; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

 

Career

Growing up in Australia, Malaysia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, Angeline got her start in business at an early age. Between school terms, Angeline gained experience within different divisions of her family’s businesses, including Laura Ashley in the UK and Metrojaya department stores in Malaysia.

Angeline Francis Khoo also had the opportunity to get to grips with the finer details of retail around the dinner table, discussing product development, marketing, exporting, finance and management, with her family and contributed her own perspective to the running of the family business, Malayan United Industries (MUI), and its subsidiaries.

Prior to founding Rosie On Fire, Angeline also held roles at geopolitical consultancy Oxford Analytica and non-profit event organiser The Veritas Forum.

 

Education

Angeline Francis Khoo moved to London in 2001 to pursue a career in law studying for an LLB at the University of Buckingham. Before attaining her LPC, Angeline completed her Master's in Social Science and Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford in 2009. During her time at Oxford, she was a student mentor, supporting disabled students studying at both the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes.

At Oxford, she met her husband, technology entrepreneur Jedidiah Francis.