Click Here To Listen Nashville Business 100 Leading African Americans Harry L Allen Studio Bank
Harry L. Allen, is co-founder and chief relationship officer of Studio Bank (In Organization), a new boutique bank serving Nashville and opening later in 2018. As a co-founder, Mr. Allen has been integral in the formation stage of the bank including recruiting members of the executive team, board of directors, and initial investors of the new bank, helping raise $40 million in start-up capital. Mr. Allen will serve as the Bank’s lead business development officer, supporting and representing the Bank’s commercial lending line of business and informing and shaping the Bank’s approach to relationship management. Mr. Allen will manage the Bank’s involvement and investment in community efforts and will serve as the key manager of relationships with external stakeholders such as Nashville Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club of Nashville, etc. Key among Mr. Allen’s responsibilities will be his important role in directing and implementing the Bank’s strategy in engaging nonprofit and institutional clients, a target market segment for the Bank.
Prior to the new bank formation, Mr. Allen served as a Senior Vice President and Financial Advisor with Pinnacle Bank. In addition to serving a diverse portfolio of commercial and nonprofit clients, Mr. Allen was a member of the Bank’s Community Development Committee. Prior to the merger of Avenue Bank and Pinnacle Bank, Mr. Allen served as Avenue’s Director of Nonprofit Banking and Community Investment. He was also a member of the Bank’s Culture Club – a small, diverse group of highly engaged associates dedicated to sustaining the bank’s unique culture and people practices.
Mr. Allen began his career in banking in 2000 as a teller and financial services representative with SunTrust Bank while completing his college degree. Upon graduating, Mr. Allen was hired as a Commercial Associate in SunTrust’s Management Training Program and ultimately served as a Commercial Relationship Manager in SunTrust’s Institutional and Government Banking Group until December 2008. He was appointed by the President as co-Chair of the African American Resource Group and member of the Corporate Diversity Council. In December of 2008, Mr. Allen left SunTrust to pursue a role as vice president of finance and administration for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee- a regional nonprofit that employed 51 employees across five Middle Tennessee counties. He served in that capacity until joining Avenue Bank in 2011 as a Commercial Relationship Manager before being promoted to Director of Nonprofit Banking.
Mr. Allen is a graduate of Belmont University with a BBA in international management (2004). He earned his MBA from Belmont University’s Massey Graduate School of Business in 2010 as an H.B. & Dorris Massey Scholar. Mr. Allen earned the “Outstanding Student of the Year” distinction for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees for leadership and GPA.
A native of Nashville, Mr. Allen is active in the Nashville Community serving on the board of directors for the Center for Nonprofit Management (Treasurer), Leadership Middle Tennessee (Secretary), and is a Trustee of Belmont University (Finance & Endowment Committees). Mr. Allen has previously served on the boards of Fifty Forward (Board Secretary), the R.H. Boyd Leadership Giving Society of the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville, and was founding Board Chair of Purpose Preparatory Academy Charter School. An active member of the Downtown Nashville Rotary Club, Mr. Allen was recently elected Vice President/President-Elect and will serve in that role beginning July 2018 and will be President beginning July 2019. Mr. Allen is a 2008 winner of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce’s Nashville Emerging Leader award, a 2011 honoree of Nashville’s Top 30 Under 30, and a 2014 honoree of Nashville Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40. In September 2016, Mayor Megan Barry appointed Mr. Allen to the board of directors for the Hospital Authority of Metro Nashville and Davidson County, which oversees the city’s safety net hospital, Nashville General Hospital.
Mr. Allen lives in Nashville with his wife, Chandra and their three children Noelle, Naomi and Noah.
