Getting to know our leadership team. Meet…

Sam Rowe

Chief Executive Officer, Istoria Group

1. Where were you born - and brought up?

Bristol – and Bristol!

2. What did you want to be when you grew up?

I don’t think I had a specific idea about what I might be when I was very young, but, as I got into my teens, my ambitions were to become an athlete, join the armed forces or be an academic. A PE Instructor in the Army with occasional lecturing duties would have been perfect!

3. Tell us about the career journey that brought you to Istoria Group?

Travel and languages had been part of my life from a young age and I went on to study languages at University – Spanish and Italian – and then travelled abroad, teaching overseas with a TEFL qualification. When I returned, I did a Masters in Business and Marketing and began a corporate career with BAE Systems. I ended up working in the marketing department at Head Office, where I got my first exposure to events and exhibitions.

I then took time out to travel once more for two years and then, even though a job at BAE had been kept open for me, I decided to try the exhibition agency route when I returned, which was how I first met Istoria Group, Chairwoman Claire Menzies. The opportunity arose at that company for a management buy-out, which became a business sale. We set up Ignition with a small team and one key client – Eli Lilly – growing the business from 2007 to what it is today.

4. What do you most enjoy about your current role?

Getting on a call with my team and finding out what everyone’s up to! I love being part of the process and working with people on the delivery of great projects and pitches. Digital events have been very successful for us during the pandemic, but there’s honestly nothing like the adrenaline buzz of getting on-site and seeing something come to life in 3D form.

I also love seeing the people I work with achieve things. Watching people develop and become successful is a real pleasure as a team leader.

5. What does a typical day look like for you?

Lots of meetings! At this moment in particular, as we emerge from Covid, there’s been plenty of change management and focused financial work to be done.

As a group, we are both regrouping and re-growing. Some clients are picking back up exactly where they left off, whilst others have undergone a period of change themselves. For all clients, there’s a sense of greater caution and a need to plan in more contingency, in case Covid returns. From our side, there’s also been an opportunity to review our established practices and see whether any aspect of our process should and could be done differently.

6. Which part(s) of Istoria Group’s ethos are you most passionate about and why?

‘P for Personable’. We like to enjoy our work and we like to work with like-minded clients, so it’s very important for us to create a good level of human contact from the outset. ‘I for Intelligent Thinking’ is also key. We are particularly focused on strategies and the cleverest way to achieve our clients’ ends.

7. What have been the biggest lessons of your career to date?

Never give up. Business can be hard and doesn’t move forward in a straight line - and neither should you expect it to. As we are a company that has always set out to be different, including our opposition to the formerly-prevalent ‘build and burn’ culture of exhibition design, this is especially true for us. We have had to sell in the advantages of approaching things from an alternative perspective over the years – sometimes to clients who didn’t necessarily have an appetite for doing things differently!

8. What drives and motivates you?

I have a strong work ethic and believe in working hard, so there’s an inner resilience I really value, both in myself and others.

9. Do you have any tips for being a successful company leader?

Employ great people, plain and simple. If possible, people who are better than you at what they do. You’ve always got to keep learning, even as CEO!

It’s so important to choose people with the right attitude too – and to enjoy the ways in which those people are different. We have a wonderfully eclectic range of personalities in the company right now, though all linked by the same positive attitude.

10. What kind of people do you most enjoy working with – both as colleagues and as clients?

Both as colleagues and clients, I like ambitious people, who really care about what they do and want to achieve good things. Clients who are truly collaborative are great too, especially those looking for partnerships and wanting to achieve things with us as part of a team. I know for sure that the longer you work with people, the more you can get out of the relationship.

11. Do you have any mantras or quotes that inspire you in your work?

Keep punching, as Claire Menzies always says! If you’re good enough and work hard enough, you’ll win in the end and good things will happen.

12. Who do you personally admire in the wider world?

Sportspeople and the impact they can have on the morale of nations and societies. Sport is a great teacher, especially in terms of what you can learn from grass roots level up about pulling together, building team skills and dealing with both winning and losing.

13. Where would we find you at weekends?

Outdoors, either with the children or, increasingly, ferrying them to an event or sporting activity, particularly gymnastics or horse riding!

14. Name a book everyone should read?

‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Marquez is one of my favourite authors and is responsible for kickstarting my lifelong interest in Latin America. When I lived and travelled there, I always expected to see extraordinary things because of the way he’d opened my eyes to the place – and I wasn’t disappointed!

15. What future ambitions still burn for you?

I would like to travel again and live abroad as a family for a period of time. My father did a lot of work in Spain and taught me to speak Spanish, sparking a lifetime of interest in other languages and cultures. It would be great to expose our girls to the same immersion. Perhaps we’ll open another international office somewhere great where we can live for a period of time!

Thank you for reading!