John A. Allison IV (born August 14, 1948) is an American businessman and the former CEO and president of the

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Ind ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Allison held a number of leadership positions in

BB&T BB&T Corporation (previously known as the Branch Banking and Trust Company) was one of the largest banking and financial services firms in the United States, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 2019, BB&T announced its intentions to merge ...

Corp. from 1987 until 2010 when he retired. He now serves as a director at

Moelis & Company Moelis & Company is a global investment bank that provides financial advisory services to corporations, governments, and financial sponsors. The firm advises on strategic decisions such as mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restruc ...

Early life and education

John Allison grew up outside

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. He graduated

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

with a degree in business administration in 1971. He received a Master of Business Administration from the Fuqua School of Business in 1974.

Career at BB&T

Allison began his career with

in 1971. While CEO of BB&T (Branch Banking & Trust) in 2008, Allison earned a total compensation of $4,690,974, which included a base salary of $993,675, a cash bonus of $1,504,303, stocks granted of $995,089, and options granted of $973,800. He retired at the end of 2008 as CEO of BB&T, handing over day to day control of operations to former COO, Kelly King, who assumed the CEO role on January 1, 2009. In 2008, Allison was nominated by Morningstar as one of the best CEOs of 2008.

Ideological activism

Allison is a major contributor to the

Ayn Rand Institute The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism, commonly known as the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank in Santa Ana, California, that promotes Objectivism, the philosophy developed by Ayn Rand ...

(ARI) and assigned Rand's '' Atlas Shrugged'' to all of his senior executives. Calling ''Atlas Shrugged'' "the best defense of capitalism ever written", Allison has seen to it that "the BB&T Charitable Foundation has given 25 colleges and universities several million dollars to start programs devoted to the study of Rand's books and economic philosophy".Ayn Rand Studies on Campus, Courtesy of BB&T
" NPR News, by Clark Davis In June 2012, he was designated to replace Ed Crane as CEO and president of the

, a libertarian

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

headquartered in Washington, D.C. He retired from Cato at the end of March 2015. He currently serves on the board of directors at Cato Institute. Allison is a staunch opponent of the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

, and emphasizes its role in business cycles. Allison penned the introduction to ''Why Businessmen Need Philosophy: The Capitalist's Guide to the Ideas Behind Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged'', published in 2011. In September 2012, Allison released his own book, ''The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism is the World Economy's Only Hope''. Reviews of the book were strong, albeit not by ideological opponents. In October 2014, his second book, ''The Leadership Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why the Future of Business Depends on the Return to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness'', was published.

Awards

He received an honorary doctorate from East Carolina University,

Mercer University Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,000 s ...

, and an honorary doctorate from

Universidad Francisco Marroquín Francisco Marroquín University (Spanish: ''Universidad Francisco Marroquín''), also known by the abbreviation UFM, is a private, secular university in Guatemala City, Guatemala. It describes its mission as "to teach and disseminate the ethical ...

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

, Guatemala.

Positions served

He serves on the board of visitors of the Fuqua School of Business,

Build-A-Bear Workshop Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. is an American retailer headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri that sells teddy bears and other stuffed animals and characters. Customers go through an interactive process in which the stuffed animal of their choice ...

, Korkkuss-Neggins Business School, and the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

References

External links

Allison's bio
at the

Arnold Kling, review of ''The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure'', ''Reason Papers'' vol. 34, no. 2 (October 2012), pp. 229–233
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Allison, John A., IV 1948 births American chief executives American financial businesspeople American financial writers American libertarians Cato Institute people East Carolina University alumni Fuqua School of Business alumni Living people Objectivists UNC Kenan–Flagler Business School alumni Wake Forest University faculty Ayn Rand Institute