Allen Parker served from March 2017 until March 2020 as an executive at Wells Fargo & Company. Wells Fargo is the third largest bank in the United States and is headquartered in San Francisco. Allen joined Wells Fargo as the General Counsel to be part of the team that was tasked with addressing the sales practices matters and other serious issues at Wells Fargo that were revealed in late 2016. When Chief Executive Officer Timothy Sloan unexpectedly retired in March 2019, the Wells Fargo Board of Directors appointed Allen as Interim Chief Executive Officer, a role in which he served for seven months.
Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Allen was a partner in the New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. While at Cravath, he specialized in finance and corporate governance, was a member of the firm’s Corporate Governance and Board Advisory Practice, and served in a variety of firm leadership roles.
From January 2013 through December 2016, Allen served as Cravath’s fifteenth Presiding Partner. In this role, he had day-to-day responsibility for strategic planning, financial analysis and reporting, business development, risk management, human resources, and public relations. Allen also served for six years as Cravath’s Deputy Presiding Partner.
Allen received a B.A. from Duke University, where he majored in political science and comparative area studies. He then received an M.A. in political science from the University of Chicago, where he focused on international affairs and political systems in Asia and the Middle East. Allen received a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Notes and Comments Editor of the Columbia Law Review. After graduating from Columbia Law School, Allen served during 1983 and 1984 as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Amalya L. Kearse, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Allen is Chairman of the Advisory Board and Chairman of Three Ocean Partners, a Senior Advisor to J.H. Whitney Investment Management, and a Senior Advisor to Litify, an early-stage company that provides technology solutions to the legal industry. Allen is also a member of the Board of Directors of Archer Systems, LLC, a company that provides comprehensive litigation-related claims administration and other settlement services, and was elected an Independent Director of Silicon Valley Bank Financial Group following its bankruptcy filing. From July 2020 through July 2022, Allen served as a Senior Advisor to the global consulting firm McKinsey & Co.