Dave Allen
David Allen is a co-founder and partner of Studeo and has been a serial advertising entrepreneur for more than 16 years. Mr. Allen began his advertising career in 1988, while still a college senior, as co-founder of the full-service advertising and design firm Hales Allen, Inc. Over the next nine years, Hales Allen serviced a client list that included Novell, Inc., WordPerfect, American Express, Ameritech and Jostens Learning Corporation. In 1997, Mr. Allen recognized his clients' need for interactive capabilities and began his relationship with NetProfit, a web-development company co-founded by Todd Shepherd. NetProfit's web-centric vision provided the ideal complement to his company's traditional advertising and communications expertise. Together they formed Studeo, a word discovered on a Latin vocabulary card Mr. Allen still keeps in his office. The name connotes "student, to study, eagerness, striving, enthusiasm and zeal" – all words that perfectly describe Studeo's philosophy. While building Studeo, Mr. Allen and Mr. Shepherd also successfully incubated and launched Serus LLC, a developer of Java-based authoring tools, which was sold to Netopia, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTPA) in 1998. Later that year, Studeo began talks with Smith Harrison Direct, a direct-response advertising agency that would provide the missing element in Studeo's capabilities. In 1999, the two agencies merged. Over the years, Mr. Allen has served many roles at Studeo and today leads strategy and client relations for clients such as Corinthian Colleges, Inc. and ICON Health & Fitness, Inc. He also directs Studeo's Account Services group and plays an essential role in keeping Studeo's Salt Lake City and Irvine offices integrated and running smoothly as one. Mr. Allen studied advertising and communications at Brigham Young University, where he has taught the senior campaigns class and spoken at several student advertising forums. He also serves on the board of Metrobelle, Inc. and Club LeSpri.
