Meet The Candidate: Robin Rowe

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Seven candidates are competing for three spots on the five-member Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education in Tuesday's election.

Patch asked them to describe their qualifications and visions for Beverly Hills schools. Robin Rowe, 60, says that he wants to increase enrollment, raise the rankings of Beverly Hills schools, pay teachers a living wage, and end what he sees as improper use of funds.

Family:

My family has the largest and oldest organic farm in Illinois, which is where I grew up. My parents were founders in the organic foods movement in the 1950s. Activists and journalists, they met while working at the regional newspaper, which my family had founded in 1872.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

Just me. I was a navy research scientist. I've been on the City of Beverly Hills Technology Committee since 2016 in a volunteer role. Many of my ancestors were in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. My ancestor who founded the Illinois newspaper was a state assemblyman.

Education:

As a professor I've taught computer science at the Naval Postgraduate School and the University of Washington.

Occupation:

I've served in many roles. At age 16, founded my first enterprise, a sports car restoration company. Next, became an NBC technical director of broadcast news, production of live nightly television newscasts. Switched from production to engineering. As a broadcast engineer, built the flagship robotic television studios at NBC. As dance cinematographer at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, worked with the world's top dance companies.

Fortune 500 financial systems and database architect. Taught C++ at the University of Washington and the Naval Postgraduate School. Navy research scientist VR war gaming. DARPA principal investigator digital video and speech recognition. AI research lab director. Enterprise manager and chief technologist at multi-billion dollar defense company SAIC.
As a journalist, wrote for Popular Photography, Popular Science and many other magazines. Columnist Linux Journal. Film critic British Weekly newspaper. Several years as managing editor of news daily Hollywood Today.

Animation R&D supercomputing at DreamWorks Animation, which moved me to Los Angeles. Animation and visual effects software architect to superhero films (Spider-Man, Mutant Ninja Turtles), AAA games, a hit Mattel Barbie cartoon series. Director of business development at a SAG-AFTRA Hollywood talent agency and manager of the voice-over department.
As a transportation software architect, developed safety-critical real-time embedded Linux software that controls U.S. traffic lights. Systems analyst AT&T DirecTV Genie satellite set-top box. GoPro IoT and AI software architect. As a product technology strategist at Lenovo, developed ThinkReality AR glasses released November 2019. Winner 2019 Novartis Biome innovation prize for AI computer vision analysis of disease.

Campaign website:

robinsrowe.com

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office:

None. Ran for Beverly Hills City Council in March.

The single most pressing issue facing Beverly Hills schools is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

High finance. BHUSD oversees a budget that has hundreds of millions of dollars. Because our education tax money has been mismanaged for a decade, our schools are crumbling, teachers don't make a living wage, and academically our schools don't rank in the top 50 even among local schools. A disaster. I hadn't been aware how bad the mismanagement was at BHUSD until I ran for City Council in March. Like many citizens, I was only vaguely aware of problems.

Perhaps because our community relies so much on tourism and having a great reputation, there seems to be a deliberate effort by the local press to present Beverly Hills in the best light, to hide dirty laundry. The Beverly Hills newspapers have not been a watchdog informing us of what's going on at BHUSD or in our City Council. Mistakes that may be expected to cause outrage go unreported. It's not easy to solve chronic problems in our city when the people don't even know about them.

I'll bring competence to overseeing the BHUSD budget. That will fix a lot of things wrong with our schools because finance impacts everything. Referendum Measure E and Measure BH raised over half a billion dollars. Expecting a retired elementary school teacher would have the financial skills to oversee a massive budget is how we got in a mess.

I've held Profit & Loss management responsibility at a multi-billion dollar company. As a subcommittee chairman at The CFO Alliance, I led a team defining best practices for CFOs across America. I've built Fortune 500 financial systems. In a financial audit of a hospital, I uncovered $1 million in missing funds. I've got the management and financial chops the School Board lacks.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I have the record of success in finance, education and innovation. The Incumbent says to re-elect him, that he has 10 years of experience. Unfortunately, it's 10 years of bad experience. His prior experience as an elementary school teacher did not not prepare him for a role overseeing a multi-million dollar budget. Our schools have been in continuous decline the 10 years he's been in office. He says his experience is the reason to re-elect him, seems unaware of his own performance.
The other candidates are an attorney, a psychologist, a real estate construction manager, an insurance salesman and a college student. No relevant experience in finance or education. Is this who we should trust with hundreds of millions of our tax dollars and our children's education?

In what way has the current officeholder failed Beverly Hills schools?

Our schools have been continuously in decline the ten years the Incumbent has been in office. During our recent debate, the Incumbent said it's been one crisis after another, that it is not his fault. He has said that declining enrollment is good, that with fewer students it makes the job easier. It takes a special kind of thinking to imagine that three-quarters of Beverly Hills students being in private schools, avoiding our public schools because they are inadequate, is some sort of accomplishment.

We have one of the richest school districts in the country, so why do we seem always out of money? Our School Board is being sued for diverting $16 million in education funds into political projects and lobbying unrelated to education.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform:

The five most important issues facing BHUSD are COVID, IEP, budget, abandoned oil wells and Future School. Details at http://robinsrowe.com/robin-s-rowe-the-beverly-press-interview/.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I have extensive experience in high finance and in advancing education. As a professor, taught computer science at two universities. As a strategist and manager, created innovation at many Fortune 500 companies. At Lenovo, AT&T, GoPro, DreamWorks Animation and NBC-TV.
Enterprise manager with P&L responsibility at a multi-billion dollar defense company. As a subcommittee chairman at The CFO Alliance, a national association of Chief Financial Officers, helped define high finance accounting best practices for the country.

If you win this position, what accomplishment would make your term in office as a success?

I measure success as increased enrollment, higher academic ranking and a living wage for our teachers. To reverse the decline our schools have suffered under the Incumbent, who had another 700 students leave in the last three years.

Why should voters trust you?

Integrity.
I'm the candidate who doesn't accept donations. Not one cent. I can faithfully represent the interests of Beverly Hills parents and students because I am not beholden to rich donors, to people who may not even live here. There's a lot of campaign money available from special interests, and it's not good that politicians take it. Money from lobbyists for private schools, to help public schools fail. Money from construction contractors and real estate developers, who want to do business with BHUSD, to get our tax dollars.
I don't seek endorsements, either. They expect favors, too.

What are your views on fiscal policy, government spending and the use of taxpayer dollars in the office you are seeking?

Let's dedicate spending our education funds as intended, on education. Something our incumbent school board has not done. Work toward increasing enrollment, raising our academic ranking, student well-being and paying our teachers a living wage.

Is there any reason you would not serve your full term of office, other than those of health or family?

No.

The best advice ever shared with me was ...

Nothing succeeds like success.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

When our mayor suggested I volunteer to join the Beverly Hills Technology Committee in 2016, there was no plan I would go into politics. Four years later, when two former mayors said I should run in the March election for City Council, I answered the call. In March, when a different former mayor said I should run in the November election for BHUSD, I answered the call again.
What people like about me is I'm not a born politician, that I just want to get stuff done. I hope to win, but know the experts expect that to be impossible without dark money behind me. We can make history in Beverly Hills by electing the most capable manager, the one who is independent of unseen power brokers.