An indulgent series of bios. Mostly written in a traditional third person style.
Bio I’m using in Query letter too agents.
Currently working a super regular job, I am the author of two plays, including Making Out a comic sex education play for grades six to ten, the winner of an AMPIA award for video editing, and performed and produced improv comedy for over fifteen years. I write for fun at ianrowebot.medium.com and northwestexpeditions.com, coach under 11 soccer, and chair the Parent Advisory Committee at my son’s school. A reformed prairie boy who loved living in Toronto I now live in Vancouver where I love to swim in the ocean and the nearby lakes as often as I can.
Reasonably Short Bio (Arts)
Currently crushing it at a super regular job, Ian performed and produced improv comedy for over fifteen years; including co-founding the highly successful Ghost Jail Theatre (three years of weekly shows) and the Tournament of Wonders (first improv comedy to receive Canada Council for the Arts Funding). Ian is the author of two plays (both produced), winner of an AMPIA award for video editing, has appeared on CBC and other places. He lives in Vancouver with his family. He paddle boards and snowboards as often as he can.
Basically a List of Jobs
According to the best man at his wedding, Ian has had more jobs than anyone else his best man knows. This out of order list includes probably most of them:
- Improviser (a silly way to make a living),
- Writer (at least a few times for money)/Playwright (fringe and a high school touring play commission),
- Actor (sometimes good, shot a Burger King commercial in Brazil),
- Producer (Theatre – New York, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver; Film: Edmonton)
- Video editor (award winning)
- Stage manager
- Ronald McDonald for Alberta (yes, that Ronald)
- Apple employee (retail sales person, trainer, mentor, business sales, Manager, Senior Manager, Leader of Stores, leader B2B for Retail in Alberta and BC, Canada, other duties as required).
- Wrap maker (at Badass Jacks, that was a rough period)
- Bartender/Server/Manager at Earls Restaurants (with great results)
- Youngest ever (I hope) General Manager at Earls (got the job the day before I turned 20, for sure wasn’t qualified.)
- Edmonton Parks n Rec Careers in Outdoor Education
- Owner/Operator Northwest Expeditions lifestyle tribute to dad brand.
- Product Manager
- Lemonade stand operator (Driving away boardroom or budding entrepreneurship depending on how one looks at it. One time a van pulled over with maybe three guys driving through Edmonton from Saskatchewan (they must have been lost to find us on our residential side street). They were probably in college and seemed very worldly. They gave us a five dollar bill. I don’t remember what we were charging, but this was an exorbitant amount. Their generosity and general where did they come from and where could they be going and they are so cool and have a van and can do anything, is mostly forgotten then occasionally remembered in a lovely way.)
Apple Store Leader
In 2012 I was promoted to Interim Store Leader of Apple Richmond Centre (I went on to get the job, then a few years later moved in to B2B sales leadership for a few markets).
The Store Leader gig was a big huge deal (only 29 Store Leaders in Canada, 100 employees, many, many millions in sales, a big pay raise, directly responsible for people’s work lives, representing Apple in the community, etc). This is the internal announcement we sent out to share my “journey”. It is a good recap of this part of my life.
You’ll read things like “enriched the lives of customers”, this really is the way we talked (probably they still do) and it’s meant with sincerity. It can be a bit precious. The best people I worked with understood both the importance of this language and that it was a bit over the top. We’d find appropriate times to drop it, and add appropriate fucks and such, to remind ourselves we’re real people working with other actual humans.
I spent just short of 13 years at Apple. It really did change my life in significant positive ways. I am still thankful for the opportunities I had and for the great people I worked with. I did my best to get rid of the duds, A players want to work with other A players and all that.
This is an authentic bit of writing. I meant it all, and stand by it today, even the precious bits.
“In 2005 I moved to Toronto and twelve days later I joined Apple as a Part-Time Seasonal Specialist at the Apple Store, Yorkdale; that year we launched the iPod Nano, had to have bouncers on the door at Holiday, and I began an incredibly fulfilling career I never planned to have.
Since I started I have had the opportunity to be a Specialist, a Business Consultant, a Manager, and Senior Manager. I have sold Macs, launched iPhones and iPads, swapped iPods and iPhones, trained One-to-One members, delivered workshops, repaired relationships, struggled to repair a computer or two, developed the careers of others and more. In those moments I am lucky to have been able to enrich the lives of our customers.
As I have grown at Apple I have been fortunate to have experienced many profound moments in the stores and in my personal life. I got engaged (I know I’m not the only one who has hidden an engagement ring in the store safe!), I got married, moved across the country, bought my first home, renovated that home and had my first child. Working at Apple had made all of that possible in ways I never expected and deeply appreciate.
I am honoured to work for this company and in every moment I am at Apple hope to create and support similar moments for the talented people I have the privilege to work beside.
I believe that we must be passionate and invested in what we do, whatever it is; that success is to make those around you successful and happy; and I highly recommend having a baby (it’s the best). It has been an amazing six and a half years. I am excited to see where my journey with Apple will take me next.
Thank you,
Ian Rowe
Amalgamation Of Old Bios Ian Used To Use To Get Work
He can also be seen and, or heard on the CBC News performing political satire as half of the duo Missing the Point. With Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie Ian co-produced and is in the initial stages of editing “Who Cries for the Pinata,” which will air on CBC News World later this year. In 2002 he produced and wrote the play Kimota, which premiered on the mainstage at the Syncrude NeXt Generation Arts Festival. His newest play Making out traveled to schools across Alberta in the fall of 2003.
Ian is a co-founder of The Draft Six with whom he performed in, co-wrote and co-producedThe Sonic Brooms, and produced the company’s first feature movie Turnbuckle. Ian has recently been nominated for an AMPIA award for Editing ofTurnbuckle, and is the winner of the same editing award (under 30 minutes) for Bluesky Productions When the Pig Looks At The Matchbox.