Jack Cowin

Jack Cowin (, born 13 July 1942) is a Canadian-Australian businessman and entrepreneur with a long-term involvement in franchised 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, and has at various stages controlled the Domino's Pizza franchise in Australia prior to its 2005 listing on the ASX.

Cowin also has an ownership stake in the Lone Star Texas Grill restaurant chain in Canada, with upstream Australian investments in cattle stations and food processing. Cowin has also been an investor in Australia's Ten Network, serving as a non-executive director.

As a child he was a mower and paperboy. As college student, he sold trees, shrubs and rocks. Cowin graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario in 1964. having moved with his wife and young child. , those initial investors had an investment worth approximately 8.9 million. After opening eight KFC outlets, he bought the rights to Burger King.

Cowin later discovered someone else had the rights to the Burger King trademark in Australia, so Cowin instead called the outlets Hungry Jack's. Many years later he had a falling out with Burger King over the name and other issues related to their franchise agreement which was eventually resolved in his favour. He talks about this in an interview

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 contract on the grounds that the Australian franchisee was not opening new units as fast as was required under the agreement. In response, Cowin's Hungry Jack's sued Burger King for breach of contract, alleging that the chain had no legal grounds for terminating the contract.

The business Competitive Foods Australia continues to be privately held by his family, with an estimated value of $350 million. In 2017, Cowin advocated for the elimination of weekend worker penalty rates within Australia, regarding them as a "thing of the past".

Cowin also owns Consolidated Foods, a meat processing business that exports throughout the world. Cowin sold a substantial investment in Stanbroke Pastoral Company, one of the country's biggest cattle station operators. Cowin is also an investor in the Lone Star Texas Grill restaurant chain in Canada. Cowin is a major shareholder in RCX (Rail Crew Express), a US transportation company based in Kansas that operates 1,000 vehicles as a crew hauling service to the major railway operators. He is the Chairman and largest shareholder of Domino’s Pizza Enterprises. He also is a Director and 40% shareholder of BridgeClimb Sydney – operator of a major Sydney tourist attraction.

In 2000, his alma mater, the University of Western Ontario, conferred Cowin with the award of Doctor of Law (honoris causa). until May 2019. He gifted funds to the University to pay for stands for the new football field, that was named in honour of his father, Stanley J. Cowin.

Cowin is an active member of the World Presidents Organization.

Net worth , the net worth of Cowin was assessed by the Financial Review Rich List at 4.67 billion; and was ranked as the 26th richest Australian.

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