Alumnus Landon Romano (BA 1999) leads an exciting and exotic life. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a BA in Geography in 1999, he travelled extensively and then settled in the Bay area where he worked for Veritas Software for over 4 years. He then moved to Waco, Texas in 2006 and enrolled at Baylor University in order to earn an MBA which he completed in 2008, and he has since settled in Pretoria, South Africa, where he now runs a private investment company. Private investment certainly can be exciting, but Landon has expanded that side of his career into more exotic fields, literally and figuratively. For one thing, he farms African game animals in South Africa, and that enterprise has led to the establishment of Drone Safaris, a business that uses drones to aid the thousands of fellow exotic game farmers in the area. It makes perfect business sense, as Landon explains:
“In July 2014, we had a runaway kudu bull. We hunted 3.5 hours for him by air using a Robinson 44 helicopter. A veterinary doctor helped in the process. We did not find our bull or a substitute bull for that matter. The total cost of the exercise was approximately R20,000 (about $1,680) for the chopper, pilot, vet, and all! That’s an expensive exercise of about R5,700 ($480) per hour for not finding an animal. Later, using a Robinson 22 helicopter, my farming partner saw the kudu bull standing motionless under a tree 30 meters away. Thank God the kudu bull was finally spotted so we knew where he was on the farm. But The Grey Ghost had hidden motionless under the trees due to the loudness of the chopper [note: Greater Kudus are referred to as “Grey Ghosts” in Africa because of their ability to blend in with their surroundings]. These expensive and extensive hide and go seek exercises got us thinking, ‘Surely there’s a better way to scout, survey, and view animals?’ This is when we realized that there is!’” (source).
There are over 10,000 exotic game animal farmers in South Africa alone, and Drone Safaris has become a profitable enterprise by providing lower costs and higher value benefits in game census and infrastructure maintenance: “We know that if we can help serve this farming community, then we will hit a vein of profitability for our team and the farmers by way of substantial cost-savings,” Landon says. He adds: “As exotic game farmers ourselves, we want and need to know the whereabouts of our animals. We want to ensure best of breed practices with regard to both animals and farm infrastructure. Being farmers without a constant eye in the sky makes it difficult to know exactly what is happening on the farm. Although we could potentially justify the ownership and use of a chopper on our farm, the cost-benefit analysis makes no sense. Yet, with a drone, pilot, and ranger to assist, we could have eyes from above with a lower cost and significant returns on investment” (Ibid.).
Landon is also a firm believer in charitable works. As he succinctly puts it, “There is an injustice in this world called poverty.” In 2011, he established The Apollos Ministries Foundation for the Gospel of Christ Jesus which made it possible for him to organize a successful water drilling project for Tekatako Daycare in White River, South Africa in 2014 (see the April 29 2014 article, “Landon Romano: An Alumnus Who Makes a Difference” for more on this subject).
Landon also has the distinction of being the youngest alumnus of our Department to ever fund a Geography scholarship. He did so by establishing a textbook scholarship fund in 2005 as a thank you to the department that made a positive difference in his career. The Landon Romano Textbook Scholarship is given out at the beginning of each quarter to undergraduate students enrolled in our lower division courses to assist in the purchase of their textbooks. Landon is, indeed, “an alumnus who makes a difference.”
Article by Bill Norrington
