Profile
Office: 72 Fifth Avenue, Room 507, New York, NY 10011 | 212-229-5400 Ext 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 at The New School in New York City. I have taught at the University since 2006. At Milano, I’ve taught courses in infrastructure, finance, accounting and financial management, entrepreneurship and impact investing, sustainability, urban policy analysis and management, and leadership. My interests lie in the areas of business administration and management, entrepreneurship, strategy and leadership. I specialize in business process evaluation and improvement, evaluating for-profit and not-for-profit business models and operations, organizational strategy, leadership across a broad spectrum, governance, and renewable energy and climate change.
I have more than 25 years of work experience in investment banking and risk evaluation, direct private market and foundation investing focused on impact investing, state and local economic development finance, and renewable energy, especially biodiesel, wind and solar power for use in housing and distributed electricity generation. I am also developing teaching strategies for using Generative AI in the classroom and to assist my students adress the future of work. I have hands-on expereince with several start-ups. I have been a visiting senior lecturer at the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University, a Fellows Program Mentor in 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 as a strategy and leadership civilian participant in a National Security Seminar 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 United States and abroad, work with local and federal governmental agencies, assisting entrepreneurs in growing their businesses, and work with small- and medium-sized business on business process improvemnt. I have also worked at JP Morgan & Co.; Merrill Lynch & Co.: James D. Wolfensohn, Inc.: Barclays Bank: and The F.B. Heron Foundation. For 5 years 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 with a major in Geography and a concentration in Environmental Studies, focusing on agricultural land use and agribusiness, and an MBA at Harvard Business School, where I focused on finance, general management and entrepreneurship.
I serve on the Admissions Committee at Harvard Busines School I am member of the Dartmouth College Fund Committee and I am president of the approximately 8,000 alumni member Dartmouth Club of New York. Past service includes being a director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, a member of the Alumni Council at Dartmouth College, and as past-chair of the New School's Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR), reporting to the Investment Committee of The New School’s Board of Trustees and the New School's President’s Office, and I was an elected member of the University Faculty Senate, where I also served as a co-chair.
Degrees Held
M.B.A., Harvard Business School, with a focus on Finance, General Management, and Entrepreneurship.
A.B., Dartmouth College, with a major in Geography, and a concentration in Environmental Studies, focusing on Agricultural Land Use and Agribusiness.
Professional Affiliation
Academy of Management
Dartmouth College Fund Committee advising on senior alumni fund leadership supporting Dartmouth's approximate $8 billion endowment (June 2022)
U.S. Department of Energy 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 Climat 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.