Herbert M. Allison

Herbert Monroe Allison Jr. (August 2, 1943 – July 14, 2013) was an American businessman who oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability from 2009 to 2010. His previous positions included president and CEO of Fannie Mae, a post to which he was appointed in September 2008, after Fannie was placed into conservatorship. Prior to that, Allison was chairman, president and chief executive officer of TIAA from 2002 until his retirement in 2008.

Early life and education Herbert Allison was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Herbert M. Allison, Sr., an FBI agent, and Mary Boardman Allison. He grew up in Garden City, New York, and earned a B.A. in philosophy from Yale University in 1965.

Following college, he volunteered for service as an officer in the United States Navy.

After the stock market crash of 1987, Allison revised the bonus structure at Merrill Lynch, adding compensation based on company performance to a plan that was previously based on individual performance alone. "Herbies," as the options became known, were controversial at first but ended up being extremely successful both for the company and the individuals involved.

In 1998, Allison played an instrumental role in preventing the collapse of Long Term Capital Management, a hedge fund whose rapid downturn in September of that year threatened the stability of the financial system. Allison proposed the solution that ultimately was adopted by fourteen Wall Street institutions. The participating institutions were all paid back.

After leaving Merrill Lynch in mid-1999, he served as National Finance Chair for U.S. Senator John McCain's first Presidential Campaign.

From 2000 to 2002, Allison was president and chief executive officer of the Alliance for Lifelong Learning, Inc., which offered online, college-level courses to adults. The company underwent significant change under his leadership, broadening its product lines beyond pensions to include financial services, life insurance, college savings plans, mutual funds, IRAs, and other offerings. The company also re-focused on customer service, adding offices closer to campuses, for example. Allison retired from TIAA in 2008, and was succeeded by Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.

Allison resigned as assistant secretary for financial stability in September 2010. Timothy Massad, who had been chief counsel to the Office of Financial Stability, succeeded him.

Allison was a member of several boards and advisory councils, including Time Warner, Yale School of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the International Advisory Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. From 2003 to 2005 he was a director of the New York Stock Exchange.