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BBandT Bank Chairman John Allison To Address Business Majors, Upstate Business Community

Submitted by: Tammy Whaley on Mar 23, 2009 at 1:56 pm Tagged with: Banking, capitalism, Financial Crisis, housing market, Leadership Source: USC Upstate

The George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics at the University of South Carolina Upstate will welcome John Allison, chairman of BB&T Bank to Spartanburg to speak on the topic of “Leadership” on April 15 starting at 4:00 p.m. at the Chapman Cultural Center, 200 E. St. John St.

Highly-regarded in the national banking community for his leadership of BB&T through the current financial crisis and over his 40-year career, Allison’s remarks will address the causes of the crisis, its implications on the economy and the actions necessary to effect stabilization and growth. There will be a brief period of questions and answers from the audience after his presentation.

Tickets are free but must be obtained in advance from Darrell Parker, dean of the Johnson College, by calling (864) 503-5312.

When Allison took the helm of BB&T in 1989 as CEO, the bank had assets of $4.8 billion. Today, with Allison now serving as chairman, the bank’s assets are valued over $137 billion and the bank is the 14th largest financial institution in the country. In 2008 he was nominated by Morningstar as one of the best CEO’s of the year. This remarkable progress has occurred as the nation’s economy has come into crisis, and through his leadership, Allison is recognized for positioning the bank to be insulated from the crisis.

“A lot of financial institutions did dumb stuff,” says Allison. “Once you had this government – through the Federal Reserve, through the FDIC, through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – supporting this expansion of housing, it’s easy to believe that housing prices won’t ever fall. That was the context in which very poor decisions were made.”

USC Upstate Management Professor Jeff Smith, who invited Allison to speak, says that the handling of the financial crisis is proving to be “a challenging environment for believers in capitalism,” like Allison, who is known for making Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged required reading for the bank’s senior executives, and for donating to local colleges and universities with stipulations that the schools incorporate Rand’s free market ideals into their curriculums.

Smith says that Allison’s speech will address many of the key points included in his letter to Congress last fall on the financial bailout, which he grades as an “F-minus.”

Additionally, he will outline the causes of our current financial crisis, identify errors that led to the chaos, address the implications on the economy, and finally, suggest governmental regulations and actions to move our country to stabilization and result in cure.

“Our future textbooks may refer to 2009 as the re-invention of capitalism,” says Darrell Parker, “and USC Upstate is fortunate that an individual currently recognized nationally as one of a few leaders who possessed the foresight, and warned of the deteriorating financial climate, is coming to Spartanburg to share his thoughts on capitalism, leadership and our current economic and financial concerns.”

For further information on the speaker, contact Jeff Smith, professor of management at (864) 503-5531 or jeffsmith@uscupstate.edu. For tickets, contact Darrell Parker, dean of the Johnson College of Business and Economics at (864) 503-5312 or dparker@uscupstate.edu. For directions to the Chapman Cultural Center, visit www.chapmanculturalcenter.org.