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Author Profile

John Allison

John A. Allison will become president of the Cato Institute in Washington,D.C., on October 1, 2012. He is the retired chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, the tenth largest financial services holding company headquartered in the United States.

Allison began his service with BB&T in 1971 and was elected chairman and CEO in July 1989. During Allison’s tenure as CEO, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets. In March 2009, he joined the faculty of Wake Forest University School of Business as Distinguished Professor of Practice.

He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his master’s degree in management from Duke University (1974). He is also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking and has received six honorary doctorate degrees. He was recognized by the Harvard Business Review as one of the top 100 most successful CEO’s in the world over the last decade.

He serves on the Board of Visitors at the business schools at Wake Forest, Duke, and UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Board of Directors of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and the Ayn Rand Institute.

Articles by John Allison


About Those “BB&T Courses”

Sep 9, 2012 · John Allison · Comments Off on About Those “BB&T Courses”

The entrepreneur who brought Ayn Rand to scores of campuses explains how and why.

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  • Did You Know? Classes of 2020 and 2021 Get Make-Up Commencement Ceremonies May 12, 2022

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  • Rescuing “Virtue and Talents” Amidst the War on Tests May 4, 2022

    On March 28, 2022, Stuart Schmill, Dean of Admissions and Student Financial Services at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced the school’s plan to restore the consideration of standardized tests to its undergraduate admissions process. A heavyweight bucks against the self-destructive path of attacking merit and standards. Will more follow suit? Or, is MIT’s … Continue reading “Rescuing “Virtue and Talents” Amidst the War on Tests”

More in Innovation

  • A Conversation with UNC-Chapel Hill’s New Provost, Chris Clemens May 16, 2022

    Late last year, UNC-Chapel Hill’s chancellor, Kevin Guskiewicz, announced the appointment of the university’s new executive vice chancellor and provost, Christopher “Chris” Clemens. Clemens, who officially began his new role on February 1, has had a long career at UNC, having first joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy as an astrophysicist in 1998. He’s … Continue reading “A Conversation with UNC-Chapel Hill’s New Provost, Chris Clemens”

  • Careers without College Feb 28, 2022

    Most Americans have been conditioned to believe that if you don’t enroll in college after high school, you have almost no chance at a successful life. That’s not true. As a 3rd-year engineering student working for a semester at an old-school machine tool company in Detroit, I got my first inkling that alternative paths into … Continue reading “Careers without College”

  • Reforming Higher Education: Lessons from the Literature on Innovation Jan 21, 2022

    Editor’s note: This is part two of a series of articles. The first part can be found here. As outlined in my previous article, the current dominance of DEI-based policies (diversity, equity, and inclusion), characterized by a focus on equality of outcomes, as well as indoctrination and curtailment of speech, is leading higher education on … Continue reading “Reforming Higher Education: Lessons from the Literature on Innovation”

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Recent Articles

  • A Conversation with UNC-Chapel Hill’s New Provost, Chris Clemens May 16, 2022

    Late last year, UNC-Chapel Hill’s chancellor, Kevin Guskiewicz, announced the appointment of the university’s new executive vice chancellor and provost, Christopher “Chris” Clemens. Clemens, who officially began his new role on February 1, has had a long career at UNC, having first joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy as an astrophysicist in 1998. He’s … Continue reading “A Conversation with UNC-Chapel Hill’s New Provost, Chris Clemens”

  • Letter to the Editor: The Diversity bureaucracy will always be “successful,” despite failures May 15, 2022

    To the editor: Prof. Weissberg seems a bit baffled by the Loyalty Oaths required by the New Red Guard.  He asks, “Is there anything that suggests that this latest effort will finally be successful?” Silly wabbit.  Lucky for him he’s retired, otherwise I’m afraid he’d be compelled to public confessions followed by some sort of … Continue reading “Letter to the Editor: The Diversity bureaucracy will always be “successful,” despite failures”

  • Who’s Afraid of a Little Data? May 13, 2022

    We’ve heard a lot, in recent years, about a free speech crisis on our college campuses. There are stories of speakers being shouted down and of students being afraid to voice their opinions, for fear of ostracism by their peers or retaliation from faculty and staff. Some have dismissed this talk as politically inspired rhetoric, … Continue reading “Who’s Afraid of a Little Data?”

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