Allen is the President and Founder of Fara Group, a U.S.-based global management consulting firm. Established in 2005 as a MENA-focused project management company, today Fara Group specializes in providing sanctions regulatory management, asset tracing, audits and various services involving cross-border disputes and investigations to financial institutions and other businesses operating in diverse jurisdictions.
In the non-profit and policy areas, Allen served initially as a staff member and later as a fellow and a member of the board of counselors at the EastWest Institute, where he arranged track two discussions on building Eurasian energy security and increasing cooperation between the U.S. and Turkey. He is also the former creator and producer of Corridor39, a television program on geopolitical trends impacting economies in the Middle East and Central Asia. Allen helps build digital economy capacities in developing economies as an Advisory Council member of the University of California Berkeley’s AMENA Center for Entrepreneurship and Development.
Allen graduated from Birmingham-Southern College in 1992 where he was an All-American tennis player. He holds master’s degrees from the London School of Economics (MSc in Economic Geography) and the University of Alabama in Birmingham (MBA with honors).