Pull Up A Chair and Meet Robbie Cowan, Senior Manufacturing Systems Complex Manager

Tell us a little about your background.

I was born and raised in Bertie County, North Carolina, about 8 miles away from the Lewiston Plant. Right after high school, I joined the Marine Corps and found myself fighting in the Gulf War. After serving more than 10 years in the military, I moved into civilian life and was blessed with meeting my wonderful wife. We are parents to 25-year-old twin sons. I am also a “dog dad” to a Labrador Retriever and Rottweiler. 

I am very proud of my sons: Justin earned his Master of Science in Nursing and is a few weeks away from becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner. Jason is an Investment Associate with a Wall Street Private Equity firm.

What is an interesting fact about you?

I have watched a couple of Patriot missiles blow up scud missiles during the Gulf War. I am one of the rare people to have served in two branches of our military.  I served three years in the Marine Corps Reserve and six years in the Army. When I first walked into my Army unit, they treated me like I was a rock star. 

Robbie, thank you for your service. Can you tell us about your role at Perdue?

As a Senior Manufacturing Systems Complex Manager for the Lewiston Complex, I’m the sole IT resource for the Cofield and Nashville Feedmills, Murfreesboro, Halifax, Kenly and Norlina Hatcheries and the Ahoskie Growout Office.

I am responsible for maintaining over 188 cameras, 50+ access points, 150 PC/laptops, 60+ Noax touch screens, 19 servers, 30 Ricoh printers, 32 network switches, 50+ Production tablets and 18 CFS scanners.  In addition, roughly 1000 people come to me when they have questions about IT related software and hardware.

How did you get into this field?

My dad bought my first computer when I was in the eighth grade. It was love at first sight for me. I fell in love with the sound of floppy disks spinning. When I came to Perdue 23 years ago, I started out as a Shipping Supervisor in Lewiston. I found an email issue with our email software. I asked David Wynne if I could try to fix it. From there I started fixing other shipping computers. So, when an IT position became available, David gave me an opportunity and here I am years later.

Do you have any interesting hobbies? If so, explain.

Macroeconomics and geopolitics are my hobbies. I was deeply troubled by the 2008 financial collapse of our banking system. I started studying Bitcoin in 2017. Based on our fiat currency and interest rate controls, I think that the importance of Bitcoin will be more widely accepted.

What advice would you give to someone who wants a long career at Perdue?

The number one piece of advice that I received in my first year is to STAY IN YOUR WORK AREA! If you stay in your work area, you will know what is happening and spot trends. That time in your work area will translate into knowledge that your leaders do not have. Be a subject matter expert and always believe in yourself.

Would you like to share anything else about yourself?

When I was promoted in 2007 to IT Manager, I was the only minority in our department meetings. Since then, the diversity of our leadership has drastically changed. I feel that our associates should be proud of our progress in Lewiston. We still have more ground to cover, and we are lucky to have leadership who understands the importance of inclusion.