Drew Rowlands

Drew spent 4 years acting professionally, before making the choice to go into higher education. He was fortunate enough to be able to combine study with performing throughout his degree and then into a career in teaching where he remained for 26 years; rising to the heady heights of Headteacher.

During this time his focus was on inspiring young people to love learning and to particularly seek-out their own passions and strengths. For most of his teaching career he was lucky to have roles whereby he was able to influence whole school and local authority strategy and therefore drove a focus that aimed to prepare students for employment and life after school as well as examinations. The reality was that by concentrating on the former, the latter generally took care of itself. He developed a depth of understanding, knowledge and expertise around creativity and how to teach it as a transferable skill so that it became a core competency that underpinned a person’s ability to learn and thrive in a modern and rapidly changing world.

Since joining IVE in 2013 he has been able to apply this passion across a wide range of sectors; developing and delivering training both nationally and internationally. Clients include; school leaders and teachers, army and senior police officers, nuclear engineers, senior leaders in Tech, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, builders, SMEs, the gaming development sector and university students. In addition to leading training, Drew is an experienced leadership coach and mentor and has over 20 years’ experience in governance across education, arts and culture, the third sector and business.

Although he ‘retired’ from full time employment in January 2021, he continues to work as an Associate Director with IVE.

Email: drew@weareive.org