Jack Cowin ( wear 13 July 1942 ) is a Canadian-Australian businessman and entrepreneur with a long-run interest in franchise fast food chains in Australia and Canada. Cowin brought KFC to Australia, founded and owns Hungry Jack ‘s, which is the Burger King franchise in Australia, [ 3 ] and has at diverse stages controlled the Domino ‘s Pizza franchise in Australia anterior to its 2005 list on the ASX. Cowin besides has an ownership stake in the Lone Star Texas Grill restaurant chain in Canada, with upstream australian investments in cattle stations and food processing. [ 4 ] Cowin is the Executive Chairman of Competitive Foods Australia, one of Australia ‘s largest privately held businesses. [ 5 ] Cowin has besides been an investor in Australia ‘s Ten Network, serving as a non-executive director. [ 4 ] [ 6 ]

Cowin served as the Chancellor of the University of Western Ontario from 2015 until 2019 .

early life [edit ]

Cowin was born on 13 July 1942 [ 6 ] in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. His beget, Stanley J. Cowin, was posted to Australia briefly by Ford and belated encouraged his son to consider emigrating there. [ 3 ] Cowin graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario in 1964. [ 6 ] [ 7 ]

career [edit ]

Cowin became an policy salesman with London Life for four years in Toronto before deciding to visit Australia to assess some business opportunities. Seeing long queues at a chinese takeaway restaurant while vacationing in Sydney, he became convinced that fast food would sell well. Aged 26 years, Cowin returned to Australia to evaluate expanding Kentucky Fried Chicken ( KFC ) into the market that at that stage had limited fast food options. [ 6 ] He bought the correctly to open ten KFC franchises in western Australia, raised CA $ 10,000 each from thirty Canadians to launch the commercial enterprise in December 1969, [ 4 ] having moved with his wife and young child. As of March 2006, those initial investors had an investing worth approximately A $ 8.9 million. [ citation needed ] After opening eight KFC outlets, he bought the rights to Burger King. [ 8 ] Cowin later discovered person else had the rights to the Burger King brand in Australia, indeed Cowin alternatively called the outlets Hungry Jack ‘s. many years late he had a falling out with Burger King over the name and other issues related to their franchise agreement which was finally resolved in his favor. He talks about this in an interview [ 8 ] for The Billion Dollar Secret book to which Cowin contributed. [ 9 ] In 1999 Cowin took action against Burger King Corp. in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Cowin alleged that Burger King attempted to terminate Hungry Jack ‘s compress on the grounds that the Australian franchisee was not opening newly units as fast as was required under the agreement. In answer, Cowin ‘s Hungry Jack ‘s sued Burger King for gap of compress, alleging that the range had no legal grounds for terminating the shrink. [ 10 ] The NSW Supreme Court ordered Burger King Corp. to pay A $ 45 million to Hungry Jack ‘s Ltd. for lost profits from delayed restaurant openings, inability to sell third-party franchises, and cannibalisation by the chain ‘s corporate-owned locations. Burger King appealed the matter to the New South Wales Court of Appeal, and on 21 June 2001, the entreaty was dismissed and Burger King Corp. was ordered to pay Hungry Jack ‘s A $ 71 million in damages. [ 10 ]

The business Competitive Foods Australia continues to be privately held by his family, with an estimated value of $ 350 million. [ when? ] In 2017, Cowan advocated for the elimination of weekend actor penalty rates within Australia, regarding them as a “ thing of the past ”. [ 11 ] Cowin besides owns Consolidated Foods, a kernel action clientele that exports throughout the world. [ 12 ] Cowin sold a significant investment in Stanbroke Pastoral Company, one of the area ‘s biggest cattle station operators. Cowin is besides an investor in the Lone Star Texas Grill restaurant range in Canada. [ 6 ] Cowin in a major stockholder in RCX ( Rail Crew Express ), a US exile company based in Kansas that operates 1,000 vehicles as a crowd hauling service to the major railway operators. [ 6 ] Cowin has served as a non-executive film director of the TEN Television Network, Chandler MacLeod, Sydney Olympic Park Authority, and Fairfax Media. [ 7 ] He is the Chairman and largest stockholder of Domino ’ s Pizza Enterprises. He besides is a Director and 40 % stockholder of BridgeClimb Sydney – operator of a major Sydney tourist drawing card. [ 6 ]

personal life [edit ]

Cowin lives in Sydney with his wife, Sharon, [ 7 ] with whom he has had four children. [ 13 ] In 2000, his alma mater, the University of Western Ontario, conferred Cowin with the award of Doctor of Law ( honoris causa ). [ 6 ] Cowin served as the 22nd Chancellor of the University from September 2015 [ 14 ] until May 2019. [ 15 ] He gifted funds to the University to pay for stands for the new football field, that was named in honor of his forefather, Stanley J. Cowin. Cowin is an active penis of the World Presidents Organization .

net worth [edit ]

Cowin was listed on the australian BRW Rich 200 list at count 70 in 2008, [ 16 ] and 79 in 2009, and had an estimated web worth of A $ 486 million [ citation needed ] and, in 2010, an estimate net worth of A $ 538 million. [ 17 ] Cowin was ascribed a net deserving of A $ 1.8 billion ( 24th ) in the 2016 BRW Rich 200. [ 18 ]

In 2021 the Financial Review Rich List, the successor of the BRW Rich 200, assessed Cowin ‘s net worth at A $ 4.94 billion ; and was ranked as the 17th richest australian. [ 1 ] meanwhile, Forbes Asia assessed Cowin ‘s final deserving as US $ 1.7 billion in 2019 ; and he was ranked as the 23rd richest australian by net worth. [ 2 ]

See besides [edit ]

References [edit ]