Women Of Excellence: Louise Allen
CEO, Ivan Allen Workspace LLC
Allison Shirreffs
July 1, 2008
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I
t was important to Louise Allen that she get her first job on merit alone, and that she
do so in a place where the last name “Allen” didn’t call to mind her great-grandfather, Ivan Allen,
Sr., founder of the Ivan Allen Co., or her grandfather, celebrated Atlanta mayor Ivan Allen, Jr.
So she got a job in California and spent the next decade carving her own road. “It was the most important thing I ever did,” says Allen, CEO of Ivan Allen Workspace LLC, the present-day rendition of the century-old company her great-grandfather established in the early 1900s. In San Francisco, Allen worked for a start up that released earnings information for publicly traded companies. When technology heavyweight Cisco Systems Inc. asked the company if it could Webcast its earnings release – a first for both organizations – Allen got the call. Her manager had a gut feeling she could pull it off – and she did. Five years later, when the company was sold, 85 percent of its revenue was attributed to Webcast services.
Of course, blazing one’s own trail has its ups and downs. When her manager in New York City called her out on something in a group meeting, Allen cried and called her mom. She wanted her mother to sympathize; instead, she told Allen to walk into her manager’s office, tell him she was sorry for the way she handled herself, and say if she ever cried in a meeting again, “he was to fire me on the spot,” Allen recalls.
Allen understands why her mom didn’t go easy on her. “She’s always held me
accountable,” Allen says, adding one of the most valuable lessons her mom taught her was, “when you
make a commitment to someone or something, you follow through.”
At 34, Allen is the steward and majority owner of a multi-generational family business in a city where her surname attracts plenty of attention. She credits a “great team” and Michael Harris, her right-hand man for much of the first year of her CEO-ship, for getting through it successfully. After meeting Allen, Harris was struck with the complexity of the challenge Allen faced. And “she entered the business at a time that was very difficult,” Harris recalls.
In the company’s 100-plus year existence, the Ivan Allen Co. made it through some tough times. But the advent of the Internet and the rise of big box retailers was taking its toll. Allen recognized work environments make a difference in terms of an employee’s productivity and contentment, and she positioned Ivan Allen Workspace to take advantage of that. The message attracted a business partner, Allsteel, and gave Allen the opportunity to take over the business from her family.
“I’ve watched her grow and blossom,” says Harris, who has observed Allen leverage her Southern charm without abusing it. “She might look like a debutante, but she’s a tough businessperson. She has an incredible skill set and she can talk to anybody.”
Given her family’s tie to Atlanta politics, Allen constantly fields questions about her political future, and she believes the city would benefit from increased involvement of its business leaders. Allen is active in Forward Atlanta, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s marketing and economic development fundraising program, as well as the Carter Center, but that’s enough for now.
Says Allen,“My No.1 focus is the business.”
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