Rowan was born to a Jewish family in 1962. His mother Barbara was a Teacher and a trained concert Pianist. He has one sister Andrea. Rowan graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. After school, he worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group of Drexel Burnham Lambert where he worked in New York City and Los Angeles. In 1990, Rowan co-founded the private equity firm Apollo Global Management with former Drexel Burnham colleagues Leon Black and Joshua Harris. The firm went public in March 2011.