Profile
Office: 72 Fifth Avenue, Room 507, New York, NY 10011 | 212-909-1617 | [email protected]
My name is Charles Allison. I am an Associate Professor of Professional Practice at the Milano School of Policy, Management and Environment (Milano) at The New School in New York City, where I have taught since 2006. At Milano, my coursework includes infrastructure, finance, accounting and financial management, entrepreneurship and impact investing, sustainability, urban policy analysis and management, and leadership. My subject matter interests are businees administration, finance, management, entrepreneurship, strategy and leadership.
I have 20+ years of combined work experience in investment banking and risk evaluation, direct private market investing, and foundation investing -- impact investing, state and local economic development finance, and renewable energy project develoment and funding, in particular, biodiesel, wind power, and solar power for use in housing and distributed electriity generation. I am also working on teaching strategies for using Generative AI in the classroom addressing the future of work. I have start-up experience and I advise start-ups. I have past teaching and advising positions as a visiting senior lecturer at The Johnson School of Management at Cornell University, a Fellows Program Mentor in a global entrepreneurship program at MIT, an Executive Energy Leadership Program Participant at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and I was appointed as a civilian participant in a National Security Seminar on strategy and leadership at the U.S. Army War College.
Previous professional experience includes a corporate finance and economic development advisory firm focused on alternative energy projects in the U.S. and abroad, work with local and federal governmental agencies, assisting under-represented SME entrepreneurs in growing their businesses. Additional work experience includes JP Morgan & Co; Merrill Lynch & Co; James D. Wolfensohn Inc; Barclays Bank, and The F.B. Heron Foundation. For 5 years, to support Nelson Mandela's New South Africa, I lived in Johannesburg, South Africa working for a pan-African investment management company and a middle-market private equity fund.
I earned an AB from Dartmouth College, majoring in Geography with a focus on agricultural land use and agribusiness and a minor/concentration in Environmental Studies. I graduated from Harvard University with an MBA from Harvard Business School, where I focused on finance, general mangement, and entrepreneurship.
I consult to the Admissions Committee at Harvard Business School. I serve as an appointed memberof the Dartmouth College Fund Committee, and I was recently re-elected president of the Dartmouth Club of New York, an approximately 8,000 member alumni organization. Past service includes being a director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, being a member of the Alumni Council at Dartmouth College, serving as part-chair of the recently sunsetted New School Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR), which reported to the Investment Committee of the New School's Board of Trustees, and I was an elected member and co-chair of the University Faculty Senate. (reviewed as of March 2024)
Degrees Held
M.B.A., Harvard Business School, with a focus on Finance, General Management, and Entrepreneurship.
A.B. majoring in Geography with a focus on Agricultural Land Use and Agribusiness and a minor/concentration in Environmental Studies.
Professional Affiliation
Academy of Management
Dartmouth College Fund Committee advising senior alumni fund leadership supporting Dartmouth's approximate $8 billion endowment (June 2022)
U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Executive Energy Leadership Program
U.S. Army War College Foundation
Performances and Appearances
Invited by the Museum of the City of New York to speak at Greening the Grid: New York's Energy Forum - a panel discussion with leadners in the field who are on the forefront of revolutioning the CIty's energy in the face of changing demand, the rise of renewables, and the advent of community-based generation and distribution (2017).
Invited by the Harvard Foundation of Mexico to speak in Mexico CIty and Monterrey, Mexico on the topic of Graduate Business Education in the U.S. (2017).
Invited by Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) to speak on a panel and conduct a workshop of Graduate Business Education (2017).
Invited to participate in the 2016 White House Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES 2016) at Stanford University.
Invited by the U.S. State Department, The U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijan Central Bank and Unibank to speak on what Azerbainjan Banking System Could Learn from the 2008 Financial Crisis in U.S. Banking (2015).
Invited to attend the 7th Annual White House Tribal Nations Conference (2015).
Selected to participate in the 2012 Executive Energy Leadership Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) - earned a certificate in Renewable Energy Leadership.
Selected to participate in the 2013 National Security Seminar at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA. - earned a certificate in National Security Leadership.
Research Interests
For-profit and Not-for-profit Entrepreneurship, Community and Economic Development, U.S. Energy Independence, Sustainability and Climate Change, Food Policy and Food Security, General Management, Immigration Reform, Large-scale Environmental and Energy Infrastructure Development, National Security, Strategic Change, and most recently harnessing the power Generative AI as it relates to the Future of Work.