Dr Helen Drennen is an internationally recognized educational leader with a career spanning five decades in schools. She started as a teacher in Australia at the end of the 1970’s and became Principal of Wesley College in Melbourne, one of Australia’s largest leading independent co-educational schools in 2003, a position she held for 15 years.
In 2019 she established Studio Schools of Australia, a ground-breaking new model of school in the remote Kimberley of northern Western Australia. In the late 1990s she served as the IB Director of Academic Affairs, based in Wales, and then as the IB Regional Director for the Asia Pacific region, based in Singapore. In 2016 Helen received recognition in the Australia Day Honours list as a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia.
On 8 November 2020 she became Chair of the IB Board of Governors, having previously served as a Board member 2009 - 2015. In addition to her service on the IB’s Board of Governors, she served as Trustee of the Shrine of Remembrance in Victoria, Australia from 2010 – 2018, and as a member of the Council of Monash University in Victoria, Australia 2013 – 2019. From 2020 – 2022 she was a member of Council of James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. In 2025 she was also elected to the Board of AISWA, the Association of Independent Schools in Western Australia.
Interview with Dr Helen Drennen AM, Chair of the IB Board of Governors
In a wide-ranging conversation, we spoke with Dr Helen Drennen AM about what motivates her, her experience in education, and her vision of the IB and education’s role in the future.
