Career
He was Chief Executive of Granada Group from 1996 to 2000, Executive Chairman of Granada Media plc from 2000 to 2004, Chief Executive of Independent Television plc from its formation in 2004 until 2007 and Chairman of the music company Electric and Music Industries from 2008 to 2010. In March 2012, he was appointed by Editor Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, to the position of Chairman of the Executive Board of the party. He was the chairman of the British Red Cross from 1 January to 31 December 2013.
In August 2013, he was elected chairman of the Danish facility service group ISS A/South. Since 2007, Allen has been Chairman of the largest commercial radio group in Britain, Global, which owns the Heart network.
Allen has been Chief Advisor to the British Government at the Home Office and is a Senior Advisor to Goldman Sachs Private Equity. He is also a non-executive director of the London Olympic Committee, a non-executive director of Tesco and a non-executive director of Virgin Media, and is involved with the natural products start-up Natural Health International.
He has also been appointed non-executive chairman at Electric and Music Industries Music, the music label behind Kylie Minogue and Coldplay. In a 2008 annual survey by The Independent of the United Kingdom"s most influential gay and lesbian people, Allen re-entered the list at number 22, dropping seven places from 2006.
