Search UT

By Catherine O’Neill Grace

Roman Cowan ’10, M.S. ’14, MBA ’14 is brand president of College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving.

Roman Cowan ’10, M.S. ’14, MBA ’14 is brand president of College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving. Photograph: Courtesy of Roman Cowan ’10, M.S. ’14, MBA ’14

When is a case study more than a case study? When it’s the gateway to a career.

Roman Cowan ’10, M.S. ’14, M.B.A. ’14 says, “College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving was a company I fell in love with before I worked there. I met the guys in my senior year at UT.”

For a marketing class, Cowan did a case study about the company, which is headquartered in Tampa and has franchises across the country and in Canada. His team of students was one of five selected to present to College Hunks founders Omar Soliman and Nick Friedman.

What Cowan liked about them immediately: They started talking about the successes of their franchisees. “They spent more time talking about other people than themselves,” recalls Cowan

During the presentation, he told them boldly, ‘In 10 years, I’ll be running your organization and you guys will be sitting on the beach drinking piña coladas.’ “They thought it was funny, but I wasn’t kidding,” says Cowan, who double-majored in marketing and accounting.

Cowan followed up with Soliman and Friedman to ask for a job — again and again, showing his determination and perseverance — until they hired him. It took a couple of graduate degrees and four years of experience, but once he got his foot in the door, he never looked back.

Cowan has been with the company for eight years now, and it’s been quite a ride. After serving on the company’s executive leadership team as COO and CFO, he was promoted to brand president in January. South Tampa Magazine even named him to its 2021 Top 10 Under 40.

As brand president, Cowan is focused on helping the company become “an iconic brand, like Disney, Zappos, Southwest, Starbucks,” he says. “It’s a matter of saturation. It’s getting our name out there, being in so many markets that College Hunks is second nature when you think of a moving company.” The goal is to get there by 2025.

Something Cowan and his wife discussed during the pandemic led to a program that should help build that name recognition. Cowan had witnessed domestic violence while growing up in Jamaica — not in his immediate family but among people he knew. They were talking about how devastating it must be to be in an abusive home situation during the pandemic lockdown. “Domestic abuse was at an all-time high, and we wanted to tackle that head on,” says Cowan. That conversation led Cowan to devise a plan to offer free moves to abuse victims.

The company’s franchisees worked with certified shelters to accomplish hundreds of free moves. “The messages we got from the people we moved, saying ‘You saved our lives,’ I will never forget those,” says Cowan. “It was a gamble, but it was the right thing to do.”