Captain Thomas Allison

Inspired by stories of his grandfather’s heroic leadership during WWII, Captain Thomas Allison always considered a military career. The tipping point came on 9/11 when he observed the World Trade Center burning from his freshman UConn dorm room – at that moment, he decided he wanted to meet the enemies of our country in battle and lead others wanting to do the same and so transferred to the United States Military Academy the following year to embark on a new career.

Since commissioning as an armor officer in 2006, Tom has been consistently deployed overseas, serving in both Afghanistan and Iraq where he was as a platoon leader and executive officer in the 2nd Ranger Battalion, an elite Special Operations unit. In addition to fighting terrorists, Tom’s work overseas has involved stabilizing populations and governments by supporting security and economies.

Tom left the Army due to injury, but he plans to continue to serve those affected by conflict – his work supporting economic progress in Baghdad was so rewarding that he hopes to pursue a career in social investing, applying his operational experience in developing countries. To accomplish this, Tom is pursuing an MBA at the University of Pennsylvania in order to study finance and learn best practices in social entrepreneurship with hopes to launch a social enterprise fund supporting finance solutions such as mobile banking and microfinance in underdeveloped economies, thereby empowering economic freedom and human progress.