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鈥淚t was a very unusual journey, which I actually give a lot of credence to making me the person that I am,鈥� he says. 鈥淎s a result of having nobody in your corner and realizing that failure didn’t have a very good future for you, you had no choice but to succeed.鈥�

That journey took Brown from the hospitality sector to an automotive parts maker to Canadian content and media behemoth Cinram. 鈥淲hen I joined as CEO in June 2009, if you listened to it, played it or watched it, there was an 86 per cent chance that we delivered it,鈥� he says, explaining that the company produced and distributed DVDs, VHSs, CDs, cassettes and video games on behalf of most major studios.

After multiple failed acquisition attempts, however, Cinram filed for bankruptcy in 2012, and Brown spent the remainder of his tenure breaking off and selling parts of the business. By the time that process ended in 2016 Brown was ready to take some time off, when he was approached by the major shareholders of Canadian educational material provider Nelson.

Founded in 1914 by Thomas Nelson 鈥� who invented the rotary printing press in聽Edinburgh in 1850 鈥� after he relocated to Canada, Nelson Education grew to become the country鈥檚 largest producer of educational materials. By 2016, however, the then-103-year-old business was actively looking to 鈥渟elf-disrupt,鈥� and evolve its textbook business for the digital age.

鈥淗onestly, nothing interested me about it,鈥� admits Brown from Nelson鈥檚 head office in Toronto. 鈥淲hat I saw was a great big bowl of vanilla 鈥� it was great vanilla, but it was vanilla 鈥斅爄t had been doing the same thing since the textbook was a breakthrough technology.鈥�

Over the next eight years, the company 鈥斅爑nder Brown鈥檚 leadership as president and CEO 鈥� transformed from a print textbook publisher to an education content provider, with all new content available exclusively on its digital learning platform, Edwin. Today Edwin is used by about 25 per cent of Ontario students in grades 3 through 10.

Though he was once reluctant to join the company, Brown now says he鈥檚 not leaving until he permanently changes how students learn in not just Canada, but around the world. Brown recently sat down with the Star to discuss his progress toward that goal, the unconventional career journey that brought him to Canada鈥檚 education sector, and the future of learning in a digital world.

Why did you eventually return to university to study food and wine after dropping out of a business program?

After I dropped out I went to work for a very famous English golf club. I worked behind the bar, but eventually worked my way up to being responsible for the kitchen, and I was hiring chefs who, on paper, looked like geniuses, but couldn鈥檛 handle the heat of a high-end kitchen. I didn鈥檛 want to be a chef but decided that if I was going to run a decent establishment, I should learn how to cook.

I later went back to study wine because I was surrounded by wealthy members of a select golf club and didn鈥檛 know a lot about wine, and I wanted to learn how to speak their language.

How did you make the jump from hospitality to the auto parts sector?

I was working six or seven days a week, 14 to 16 hours a day, and it dawned on me that life on the other side of the bar seemed a lot better.

Wednesday afternoons at the Hillside Golf Club in Southport was a mid-week tournament with many wealth industrialists. One Wednesday a gentleman I was close with complained about a supplier that was trying to poach one of his top executives, and I told him I was interested in moving on. So, this friend called the CEO of the supplier, Hairlok 鈥� which moulded car seats for major luxury carmakers in England 鈥� and said, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e not taking my guy, we鈥檙e going to keep him whatever it takes, but I know this young guy who runs our golf club. You might want to interview him.鈥�

I ultimately signed up for the executive training program with one of the largest automotive suppliers in the U.K., and I did a rotation in engineering, sales, manufacturing and finance, before working for a spinoff division. King Charles came to open our new factory, which was called the Prince of Wales Mill, and we were very successful in growing that business.

Then one of our largest customers, HP Chemie Pelzer, offered me a job, and I ended up working as a managing director for the U.K., then all of Europe, and eventually landed in Detroit. I stayed there until 2000, when I founded another automotive company with a partner and a group of investors, and I stayed there until the 2008 collapse. Then in 2009 I joined Cinram and moved to Toronto.

How did Nelson ultimately convince you to join the company?

I told them I wasn鈥檛 interested, and they came back again and again. I told them I didn鈥檛 know anything about education, and the recruiter said, 鈥淲e read an article about you that said you also knew nothing about the media industry, and you did OK there.鈥� They said they wanted someone who’s going to disrupt Nelson and give them a future as the world became more digital.

Eventually I agreed to have a look at the company, the board minutes, the balance sheets, and then I went back to meet with the board and told them if they wanted me, they鈥檇 have to play by my rules.

What were they?

I wanted the ability to break something into pieces and rebuild it better and more relevant for the future. They agreed, and I said yes, thinking I鈥檇 be in and out in five years. I just celebrated my eighth anniversary.

What keeps you there?

I haven鈥檛 achieved what I wanted to achieve; I underestimated the speed that education moves, which is a glacial pace, but we鈥檙e getting there now.

Does that mean you鈥檙e on the verge of moving on?

No, I鈥檝e got a few things I want to accomplish first, and I can鈥檛 leave until I do.

Like what?

There are quite a few trophies I want to pick up, but the main goal is changing education for the better, forever, worldwide.

Did you think you would accomplish that in five years?

That wasn鈥檛 my goal when I started, but after we launched Edwin in 2018, it was. I want the people who work here to look back and say they were a part of something as monumental as the team that built the first iPhone.

How has the classroom evolved in the digital age?

Outside of an Edwin classroom, it looks much the same as it did when I was in school in the 鈥�80s. Maybe there鈥檚 a few new 21st-century learning methodologies, but the classroom is pretty much the same.

When I joined, I went around to hundreds of schools, thousands of classrooms, and I saw how every other aspect of a student鈥檚 life had changed. They can use recommendation engines and keyword searches to instantly find any information they want, and then they come to school, and the teacher says, 鈥淥pen your textbooks and read pages 46 to 51.鈥�

I thought if we can make learning more relevant, it might be more enjoyable, and there’s a myriad of studies that show that when people enjoy something, they’re more engaged. There are even more studies that show when students are more engaged, their outcomes improve.

How does the learning experience differ in an Edwin classroom?

Whether the teacher is using Edwin as a projection tool, or kids are working on laptops, you get multi-modality, you get cross-functionality in terms of disciplines, you get great collaboration, and you get personalized learning styles. Some students might be reading, others might be on headphones having the content read to them, while others are building structures by moving shapes around a screen. You鈥檝e got a plethora of learning styles with one common thread, that Edwin is a safe sandbox of learning because it鈥檚 aligned to provincial curriculums and free of misinformation.

Our research also shows that teachers who use Edwin save an average of over an hour a week on creating lesson plans 鈥� some are saving two or three 鈥斅燼nd that鈥檚 giving teachers more time to work with students as well.

The pandemic moved work, retail and other aspects of everyday life online. Why didn鈥檛 it have the same effect on learning?

We went from 100,000 Edwin subscribers in March of 2020 to over a million three months later, but we later learned that teachers, parents and students had so much thrown at them that they just felt overwhelmed, and it wasn鈥檛 a very enjoyable experience. When the pandemic ended many teachers were excited to return to the comfort of the classroom, so that growth didn鈥檛 last.

But since then, slowly, the evangelist teachers came out and told their colleagues about it, and it started picking up pace again, and it鈥檚 only getting better. I genuinely believe eventually every educational community around the world will learn like this; I’ve never met anybody who went backwards from a smart device to a flip phone.