Hi, I’m Allen
I help brands tell their stories.
Most creative leaders are fluent in either words or visuals. I work in both. I started as a writer and spent the better part of two decades building the kind of hybrid expertise that's genuinely hard to find: I can conceive a campaign, write the line, art direct the execution, and build the editorial system that makes it all repeatable.
I've led creative and content at companies across technology, professional services, media, sports, and design, and what I bring to all of them is the same thing: over 15 years of experience building a rigorous, taste-driven point of view about how organizations should sound and the systems, teams, and standards to bring that point of view to life. I've done it at startups finding their voice for the first time and at enterprise organizations with hundreds of content touchpoints to govern. What I care about most is creative that is honest, precise, and genuinely worth reading — and the harder work of building the conditions that make that possible, again and again, at speed.
HEAD OF EDITORIAL CONTENT, INDUSTRIES MARKETING
SALESFORCE
In my current role at Salesforce, I lead the editorial team within Industries Marketing, overseeing content strategy, production, and delivery across 14 verticals. In fiscal year 2025 I managed the development of 149 content assets that generated 1.1 million visits and contributed $155 million in marketing-driven pipeline.
DIRECTOR OF BRAND AND MARKETING
RENFRO DESIGN GROUP
In a niche market like architectural lighting design it can be hard to differentiate yourself, but that’s a challenge I wanted to take on. Using my extensive experience working in the architecture and design industry, I led efforts to energize the firm’s marketing output to support new business outreach while cultivating closer relationships with existing clients.
GLOBAL DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE AND CONTENT
VIRGIN SPORT
Virgin Sport was Sir Richard Branson’s newest kid on the block, a startup that aimed to spur a global fitness movement by convening fitness festivals akin to Coachella and Burning Man. I joined the Virgin Sport team eight weeks before the brand’s formal launch to drive its editorial and creative vision. We started small by developing a stateside event in San Francisco from scratch and rebranding existing events in the UK we took over from Vitality, with the ultimate goal of delivering immersive fitness experiences around the world.
SITE EDITOR
INTERIOR DESIGN MAGAZINE
I moved to New York City in 2012 to pursue a years-old dream of becoming a magazine editor, and after four years of working as a marketer in the design industry, I was offered the chance to join Interior Design and lead their digital efforts. The magazine gave me a crash course in all things digital where I oversaw all content spanning social media, email marketing, audience development, writing and editing, brand partnerships, and events. I not only learned how to extract compelling, resonant narratives from tiny kernels of information and turn good stories into great ones, but I also learned the ins-and-outs of analyzing data and testing continuously to determine what our audiences wanted to see and when.
ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR, COPY & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
TPG ARCHITECTURE
AT TPG I occupied a singularly unique agency-side-client-side hybrid role.In my time there I went from having a marketing support role to launching and leading the content studio while also co-leading the branding team as we developed clever verbal and visual branding concepts for clients in the retail, restaurant, and technology industries.