About Allen J. Krowe

Allen J. Krowe was born June 17, 1932, in Deltaville, Va., and the son of a Chesapeake Bay waterman. He graduated from Middlesex High School in Saluda, Va. At Maryland, he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and the ROTC Band and recalls fraternity pranks such as stealing the Navy goat and painting a happy face on the chapel clock.

After graduation, Krowe entered the U.S. Air Force and served as a fighter pilot. He joined Touche Ross in 1958 after his discharge and worked there until 1960 when he was encouraged to join IBM by his wife, who was working in their travel department.

Krowe began his career at IBM in the Washington area at its Federal Systems Division working with the federal government on major space programs such as Vanguard and Project Mercury, Project Gemini and Project Apollo. He later moved to New York to hold positions of increasing responsibility and was named vice president in 1975. He became chief financial officer in 1982, and was elected a senior vice president and director in 1986. In this position, he was responsible for worldwide development and U.S. manufacturing for IBM’s Information Systems and Communications Group, Information Systems and Products Group, Real Estate and Construction Division and the Rolm Corp. subsidiary.

After becoming an executive vice president in 1988, he was recruited by Texaco to become senior vice president and chief financial officer, assuming the responsibility for the finance, tax, comptroller, risk management and corporate planning functions at company headquarters. In 1993, he was elected director and named vice chairman, serving as Texaco’s #3 ranked executive to the chairman and CEO, and he continued to hold the chief financial officer’s post until his retirement on July 1, 1997. Krowe was also the top Texaco executive serving on the company’s Equality and Fairness Task Force. The group was formed following a settlement with several black employees after the much-publicized discovery of recorded racist comments made at some meetings of Texaco executives.

Krowe also has served as a director and/or board member of:

  • PPG Industries, a $7 billion Pittsburgh maker of industrial chemicals, paints and glass
  • The $6 billion Chicago-based Navistar International Corp., the leading North American producer of heavy and medium trucks and school buses
  • IBJ Schroeder Bank, a $2 billion New York subsidiary of the Industrial Bank of Japan

He has been a member of:

  • The Advisory Committee on International Capital Markets at the New York Stock Exchange
  • The Business Council of New York State
  • The Business Committee for the Arts
  • The Westchester-Putnam Council of the Boy Scouts of America

Krowe received the University of Maryland’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1986 and was named the business school’s Alumnus of the Year in 1988. He is a lifetime member of the University of Maryland Alumni Association.

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