BB&T’s John Allison to speak to students Oct. 5

John Allison, retired chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, will speak to undergraduate students in the Belk College on Wednesday, Oct. 5, from 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM in McKnight Hall in the Cone Center.

The presentation is free and open to the university community.

Mr. Allison began his service with BB&T in 1971 and managed a wide variety of responsibilities throughout the bank. He became president of BB&T in 1987 and was elected Chairman and CEO in July 1989. During Mr. Allison’s tenure as CEO from 1989 to 2008, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets. It is currently the tenth-largest financial services holding company headquartered in the U. S. In March 2009, he joined the faculty of Wake Forest University School of Business as Distinguished Professor of Practice.

Allison is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his master’s degree in management from Duke University. He is also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking and has received six Honorary Doctorate Degrees. Allison has received the Corning Award for Distinguished Leadership, been inducted into the N.C. Business Hall of Fame and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from American Banker magazine. He was recognized by the Harvard Business Review as one of the top 100 most successful CEOs in the world over the last decade.

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

A Charlotte native, Allison is married to the former Elizabeth McDonald of Elkin, N.C. They have two sons and one daughter.