EXPERIENCE IS


THE BEST TEACHER MMTA 2015-2016 Chairman and President of Cowan Systems Dennis Morgan discusses finance, family and the future


BY MARY LOU JAY Contributing Writer


MMTA chairmen never know what prob-


lems or opportunities their year in office may bring. But 2015-2016 Chairman of the Board Dennis Morgan, president of Cowan Systems LLC, has lots of experience han- dling the unexpected. During his 36 years with the company and its predecessor, Morgan has thrived on tackling new chal- lenges and handling a wide range of proj- ects that have helped Cowan Systems pros- per and grow. “[The] biggest motivation is being suc-


cessful, not how much your salary is, but in doing a job well and having people recog- nize that you add value every day,” Morgan said. A Baltimore native, Morgan attended


the University of Baltimore where he earned degrees in accounting and in IT. After graduating in 1977 he took a job as an auditor with Maryland National Bank. In 1978, Joe Cowan, now CEO of Cowan Systems, offered Morgan a job in a subsid- iary of his trucking company. The business, Chesapeake Container Repair, fixed steam- ship containers and chassis and served as an overflow storage facility for the Port of Baltimore. Seven years later Morgan joined Key


Way Transport, Inc., the current company’s predecessor. “When I came over to the trucking side, they were not automated yet. They were doing all the dispatch on large pads of paper and were using “T” cards on


16 BEHIND THE WHEEL ~ Q4 Winter 2015


the wall,” Morgan said. With his back- ground in IT, Morgan was able to success- fully migrate the company over to its first automated system that handled dispatch, tariffs, driver payroll and similar tasks. Morgan went on to earn a Master’s


degree in finance from Loyola University in Baltimore, but his responsibilities at Cowan were not all concentrated in that area. “I’m trying to remember when I had a job where I focused on one thing all day. The compa- ny was smaller back then, so we wore a lot of hats. I worked wherever they needed assistance or support and I was fortunate to have the skill set to do it,” he said. “I would always be involved in reviewing the financials and creating reports to help manage the business better. I managed the IT department and at times, I was involved in sales and operations.” Morgan was part of the management


team, led by Joe Cowan, which took the organization in a new direction in the early 1990s. The company downsized signifi- cantly, selling off its warehouse operations and a portion of its trucking business. “In the earlier years after deregulation


we were an irregular route, long haul carri- er, but over time we decided that business model didn’t yield the results that we liked and it created jobs that we didn’t like sell- ing,” he said. “The drivers were getting into their trucks and not coming home very often. We wanted to become more of a regional, short haul carrier and more of a regular route company. Our drivers would


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AND HAVING PEOPLE YOU ADD VALUE


“[THE] BIGGEST MOT SUCCESSFUL, NOT H SALARY IS, BUT IN D


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