Meet Allan Brown: The founder who believed in you

When Hutt Valley Rotarian, Allan Brown, helped start IYM 10 years ago, he wasn’t trying to create just another programme. He wanted to change lives.  And he’s done just that for well over a thousand of young Kiwi women.

Allan is the founder and former chair of IYM, and he still plays an active role today as a board member. He helped launch IYM through Rotary, an organisation that has supported young people’s education for generations. But Allan believes IYM stands out as something special.

“This is a new offering in the suite of Rotary opportunities for young people he says. “It’s innovative, it’s self-driven, and it has real, immediate value.”

Before IYM, Allan had a long and varied career. He’s worked in manufacturing, run his own businesses, managed major public spaces like the Wellington waterfront, and led teams focused on innovation and technology. Throughout his career, he saw first-hand how powerful science, technology, engineering, maths and high-tech manufacturing (STEMM) skills can be — and how few women were being encouraged into those spaces.

Originally, Allan imagined IYM as a programme for all students. But he was ‘persuaded’ by the very articulate and passionate women on his organising committee to focus specifically on IYM being for young women. Looking back, he says it was one of the best decisions IYM ever made.

“Women have been under-represented in STEMM, and that matters,” he says. “I didn’t know that at the time, but once I understood that properly, it became very clear that we could make a real difference.”

Since then, IYM has grown beyond what Allan first imagined. Hundreds of students have taken part in the residential programme, with many more joining online nationwide. But for Allan, the learning is only part of the magic.

“What you learn is important,” he says. “But who you learn it with is just as powerful. The friendships, confidence and support that form so quickly — that can be life-changing.”

Allan believes IYM will become a lasting legacy for Rotary — one that thousands of young New Zealand women will look back on as a turning point in their lives.

“That’s what Rotary can and should be doing,” he says. “Giving young people opportunities they’ll carry with them forever.”

And that belief — in your potential — is what IYM is built on. Allan encourages all young women to take advantage of it.