Gaby Rowe

Gaby Rowe is the Managing Principal and CEO of the Houston, Texas-based strategy consulting firm Grow Associates, LLC. Gaby served as a school principal in NYC for 15 years where she was engaged in the development of the city’s tech eco-system under Mayor Bloomberg and the transformation of local education policy leading to the development of Universal Pre-K. In 2014, she moved to Houston, TX to lead the largest independent school in the state and in 2018, Gaby was appointed the founding Executive Director of the Ion, a $100 million innovation hub in Houston spearheaded by Rice University. Since 2020, Gaby and her team have led Governor Abbott’s statewide digital connectivity program, “Operation Connectivity”, Texas’ initiative to close the digital access and affordability gap for 5.5 million students across the State. Operation Connectivity is responsible for securing $1B of support for closing the Digital Divide for Texas students, for mapping the connectivity needs of students and for supporting the development of nearly a dozen innovative rural broadband pilots designed to bring highspeed connectivity to some the State’s most currently unserved communities.

Areas of Expertise

• Connectivity funding
• Digital divide mapping
• Demographics and statistics
• Policy and implementation
• Technology hardware supply chain logistics
• Virtual learning policy and implementation
• Workforce development policy and program implementation