The leader of the World Affairs Council Upstate, Rob Rowen works to bring international issues to light
Walking along Greenville’s Main Street, one might hear as many as four different languages coming from various local residents and visitors. It’s just one sign that Greenville is not only experiencing tremendous growth, but also attracting a more cosmopolitan population. Rob Rowen, president and executive director of the Global Action Coalition (GAC), is working to ensure all of those voices are heard and understood.
The GAC, an independent, nonpartisan organization, began in 2009, providing school lunch programs and other necessities for children in remote villages of Nepal. Today, humanitarian efforts continue through a diverse group of leaders and volunteers from the nonprofit, international business, military, and academic realms.
Rowen began to expand his worldview while living in Tampa, Florida, where he owned an art gallery. As a civic leader, he had the opportunity to be involved with The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Coalition at MacDill Air Force Base. “Interacting with leaders from more than 50 nations and making them feel welcome in the community changed my life. It was transformative,” Rowen says. “Having friends from other countries changes your point of view—or at least expands it.”
In the early 2000s, Rowen purchased an art collection from a “treasure hunter,” who had developed a means of getting much-needed supplies to undiscovered artists in Cuba and paying them for their work. “The art world can be so commercial, it’s easy to become jaded, but these pieces help us see the people [of Cuba] as people—aside from any politics,” Rowen says.
Rowen’s travels eventually brought him to the Pettigru Historic District, where he fell in love with Greenville. Within a few months of moving here six years ago, he became chairman of Upstate International’s World Affairs Council Upstate, and began bolstering support for the inaugural Global Upstate Conference, which was hosted by Furman University and the George Dean Johnson Jr. College of Business and Economics, University of South Carolina Upstate, in March 2022. The roster of speakers included a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and the head of cybersecurity for Elliott Davis, among other notable guests from government agencies, think tanks, and universities.
“A lot of people who came in thinking they were interested in certain discussions or speakers found themselves on the other side of the facility,” Rowen says. “It was enlightening to hear all of those perspectives and to realize we’re dealing with many of the same issues from different angles.”
Rowen’s path has led him to some amazing individuals, and in 2021, he released Defining Moments, a book that shares the stories of fourteen people who overcame odds or made unlikely choices that made a tremendous difference in their lives and impacted countless others. Like all of his current work, he says he hopes the book will make people feel good about humanity.
“Not that we have all the answers, but we have to ask, ‘What is our role?’” Rowen says.
Rob Rowen on Defining Moments
“I submit to you a new group of heroes. Instead of muttering, ‘Somebody should do something about that,’ some of the heroes in this book couldn’t pass by the tragedies of life; they put aside their own courses and became the people who made a difference. Some were faced with challenges that seemed insurmountable, and the way they chose to deal with those left turns is truly inspiring. In an age when many of our so-called heroes have proven to be disappointing, I invite readers to travel with me across the globe and across the spectrum of life to meet these people and honor our true heroes together.”
Defining Moments is available on Amazon or through Rowen (globalaction@earthlink.net).
