Herbert A. Allen Jr. is an American businessman and former president of

Allen & Company Allen & Company LLC is an American privately held boutique investment bank based at 711 Fifth Avenue, New York. The firm specializes in real estate, technology, media and entertainment. History Founded in 1922 by Charles Robert Allen, Jr., he w ...

Biography

Herbert Allen Jr. is the son of Kathleen and Herbert A. Allen Sr. His father was a high school drop out and stock trader who joinedNew York Times: "Herbert Allen Sr., 88, an Early Specialist in Corporate Takeovers" By LESLIE EATON
January 23, 1997 in 1927 an investment firm founded in 1922 by his older brother Charles,

.Forbes: "The World's Billionaires - #605 Herbert Allen Jr & family
March 5, 2008 Allen & Company specialized in corporate buyouts. A third brother Harold joined soon after. Allen Jr. has one sister, Susan Allen. His mother was an Irish

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and his father - although the son of a Jewish mother - was a non-practicing Unitarian.New Yorker Magazine: "THE CONSIGLIERE - There are big decisions yet to be made in the MCA-Seagram deal, and they may all involve Herbert Allen" BY KEN AULETTA
MAY 22, 1995 , ''"Herbert spent a good part of his childhood in the leafy Westchester suburb of Irvington. His father's mother "was Jewish--we think," Allen says. His father became a nonpracticing Unitarian--an agnostic, that is. Herbert's mother was an Irish Catholic, and she had her daughter and her son baptized in the church, but, like his father, Herbert abhorred the structure and the discipline of formal religion. "It's like digging potatoes," he says. "You can do it one day and then you get the idea."'' Allen Jr. was raised in

Irvington, New York Irvington, sometimes known as Irvington-on-Hudson,Staff (ndg"The Irvington Gazette (Irvington-On-Hudson, N.Y.) 1907-1969"Library of Congress is a suburban village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is loca ...

and graduated from

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

in 1962 and immediately joined

. In 1966, at age twenty-seven, he was appointed President. In 1973, Allen & Company purchased a controlling interest in

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

.Fortune: "Inside the Private World of Allen & Co. Putting a premium on personal ties, this family firm thrives in the land of the giants" By Carol J. Loomis
June 28, 2004 In 1982, Allen & Company launched the Sun Valley Conference and

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, ...

bought Columbia for $750 million in cash and stock giving Allen Jr. a seat on the

Board of Directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. In 2002, Allen Jr. ceded control of the firm to his son Herbert Allen III.

Philanthropy

In 1998, he donated $20 million to Williams College.

Personal life

Allen has been married and divorced three times. His first wife was Laura Parrish; they have four children: Herbert Allen III is married to Monica de la Torre, a public-interest lawyer and native of

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

; Charles Allen works at Allen & Co. as an institutional salesman and in 2005, married Kristin Wheat Fisher in a Methodist ceremony; Leslie Allen; and Christie Allen. His second wife was Broadway dancer

Ann Reinking Ann Reinking (November 10, 1949December 12, 2020) was an American dancer, actress, choreographer and singer. She worked predominantly in musical theater, starring in Broadway (theatre), Broadway productions such as ''Coco (musical), Coco'' (1969) ...

, whom he married in 1982 and divorced in 1989. After 1989 he married and has since divorced Gail Holmes. He resides in Cody, Wyoming.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Herbert Jr. Living people American investors Directors of The Coca-Cola Company Stock and commodity market managers Williams College alumni American bank presidents American billionaires 1940 births Allen family (investments)