When Rowan Fraser left his boyhood home of Havelock North for university in Auckland, he struggled to navigate his way around the city. Now he knows his way around the world, which has indeed become his career oyster.
“I think that success, for me, is trying to engage as well as possible in all areas of life, including being a good person: a good husband and a good father and a good friend. For me, that comes down to the environment and the climate. That’s part of being a good person.”
He is talking today from Vientiane, Laos, where he holds the role of country director for GGGI, an international organisation providing climate advisory services in developing countries and emerging economies. In this role, Rowan oversees a diverse portfolio of policy and investment projects that help Lao PDR to cut carbon emissions and increase climate change adaptation, particularly in towns and cities. His CV is jammed with international gigs: GGGI Nepal before Laos; United Nations posts in Asia and the Pacific prior to that.
Perhaps it was always thus. On his Keystone application form he wrote: “I have a dream to be successful. I have always strived to be successful in all aspects of my life.”
And so he has. But the path has not always been easy.
After his parents divorced when Rowan was six, he and his three siblings were raised by their mother alone. A precociously gifted child, he bore the separation badly. However, it did not impede his scholastic path at Havelock North High School, where his interests and activities covered most every option available – on top of his stellar academic record. No surprise he was made head boy.
“My grandparents used to say to me that ‘if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well – whatever you pursue,” says Rowan.
His Keystone grant saw him head to the University of Auckland where he embarked on a degree in architecture. Back then, “I don’t think I really grasped what the scholarship would mean,” says Rowan. “The financial support was critical, but what was just as important was that the trustees saw potential in me and had confidence in my abilities. I will always be very grateful to the Trust for that.”
This had particular resonance when, two years into his studies, his mother developed a terminal illness and Rowan, with the support of Keystone, suspended his studies to care for her. After her death and a period of reflection, Keystone kicked back in and Rowan completed his Bachelor of Architecture and then Masters of Architecture at Auckland. He then moved to Paris to complete a Master of Urban Policy at Sciences Po.
Rowan’s gradual shift from straight architecture to broader urban sustainability draws on his upbringing in the Hawkes Bay and, in particular, the Tukituki River where he spent much of his childhood. “The Tukituki is such a special river for me, it’s like a family member. It’s this love of the environment which is a fuel in my career.”
There is another family member to take prominence now. Rowan and his wife Linda, an economist from Colombia, have just welcomed their first child, Emil.
Rowan’s Keystone application statement about success has a wider application than the academic. “I think that success, for me, is trying to engage as well as possible in all areas of life, including being a good person: a good husband and a good father and a good friend,” he says. He gives great consideration to what kind of person the planet needs in these times. “For me, that comes down to the environment and the climate. That’s part of being a good person.”
