Jo Lynn "Jody" Allen (born February 3, 1959) is an American businesswoman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She is the sister of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

co-founder

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which h ...

, and served as the chief executive officer of his investment and project management company, Vulcan Inc., from its founding in 1986 until 2015. She is also the co-founder and president of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Following the death of her brother in October 2018, Allen was named executor and trustee of his estate, pursuant to his instructions, giving her responsibility for overseeing the execution of his will and settling his affairs with tax authorities and parties with an interest in his projects. Among some of the properties she took control of upon his death were the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 a ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

, the ''Octopus'' super-yacht, and the Portland Trail Blazers of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

, along with minority ownership of the

Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

of the MLS.

Early life and education

Allen was born in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

on February 3, 1959, the daughter of schoolteacher Edna Faye (Gardner) AllenMaureen O'Hagan
Faye Allen, mother of Microsoft co-founder, dies at 90
, ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington s ...

'', June 3, 2012 and Kenneth Sam Allen, an associate director of the

University of Washington Libraries The University of Washington Libraries (UW Libraries) is the academic library system of the University of Washington. The Libraries serves the Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell campuses of the University of Washington and the university's Fr ...

. Her older brother Paul went on to become co-founder of

Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washingt ...

.William Plummer
Paul Allen: Rich and Reclusive, Microsoft's Other Cofounder Goes Hollywood
, ''

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of proper ...

'', June 19, 1995 She grew up in Seattle's

Wedgwood Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rap ...

neighborhood and graduated from Lakeside School in 1975. She studied drama at

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacifi ...

Walla Walla, Washington Walla Walla is a city in Walla Walla County, Washington, where it is the largest city and county seat. It had a population of 34,060 at the 2020 census, estimated to have decreased to 33,927 as of 2021. The population of the city and its two ...

, and was a member of the class of 1980.

Career

In 1986, Allen co-founded Vulcan Inc. with her brother to manage their family's business and charitable endeavors. Vulcan's former chief financial officer described her as being "responsible for having the trains run on time" and said she had "a particular passion for real estate development, building things in general." She currently serves as vice-chair of First & Goal Inc., which oversees operations of the

. She was involved in negotiating the public-private partnership that led to the construction of Lumen Field in Seattle, and was an adviser to her brother when he first considered buying the Seahawks.Brier Dudley
Seahawks Sign Lease For 30 Years At New Stadium
, ''

'', September 25, 1998Linda Keene
The Enigmatic Paul Allen -- Everyone Knows What He Does, But Few Really Know Who He Is
, ''

'', June 11, 1997 In 1997, a Seattle reporter wrote: "Jody Patton thought buying the Seahawks was a great idea; thus was born Allen's efforts to acquire the team and build a new football stadium." During her career Allen also supervised construction of the Moda Center in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

, renovation of the

Seattle Cinerama The Seattle Cinerama Theatre is a landmark movie theater in Seattle, Washington, United States. Located in the city's Belltown neighborhood, it was one of only three movie theaters in the world capable of showing three-panel Cinerama films until ...

, and also helped bring the

EMP Museum The Museum of Pop Culture or MoPOP is a nonprofit museum in Seattle, Washington, dedicated to contemporary popular culture. It was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000 as the Experience Music Project. Since then MoPOP has organize ...

(now the Museum of Pop Culture or MoPOP) to Seattle.Melanie McFarland and Patrick MacDonald
The EMP has been 'long, major journey'
, ''

'', June 23, 2000 She is also president of Vulcan Productions, a company that produces films, digital programs, and outreach initiatives, and has produced or executive-produced more than a dozen documentaries and feature films. In 2013, she signed on as a backer of two documentaries, the

Richard E. Robbins Richard E. Robbins is an American filmmaker and documentary maker, who has produced and directed several documentaries for ABC and PBS. The most notable is '' Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience'', which puts forward the perspect ...

-directed film ''Girl Rising'' and the nuclear power documentary '' Pandora's Promise''.Rebecca Ford
'Girl Rising' Picked Up by Regal Cinemas for Weeklong Engagement
, ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

'', April 5, 2013Kerry A. Dolan
Why Billionaire Paul Allen Backed Pro-Nuclear Power Film Pandora's Promise
, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'', June 14, 2013 In 2013, five of her former security guards accused her of sexual harassment.Levi Pulkkinen
Bodyguards: Vulcan CEO Allen tried to smuggle bones out of Africa
, ''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. Th ...

'', February 28, 2013 The lawsuit was settled out of court.

Philanthropy

Allen co-founded the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation in 1990. Since then, the foundation has given more than $469 million in grants to over 1,400 nonprofit organizations.The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation’s New $6.87M Grant Cycle Lends Strong Support to Scientific Research
''

Paul G. Allen Family Foundation Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which ...

'', August 5, 2013 Allen is the president of the board of trustees of the Museum of Pop Culture, a nonprofit museum dedicated to pop culture and music. The ''

Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington s ...

'' credited Allen with helping her brother make the museum a reality: "Although Allen gets most of the credit...it is the brainchild of both these close siblings. Allen provided the money and inspiration; Patton, as executive director, is largely responsible for the vision that made it happen." With her brother, Allen co-founded the Seattle-based non-profit organization Allen Institute for Brain Science in 2003, of which she serves as chairman of the board. The Institute provides free online public resources to scientists around the world. Other boards on which she has served include those of the Seahawks Charitable Foundation, ArtsFund, the

Theatre Communications Group Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is a non-profit service organization headquartered in New York City that promotes professional non-profit theatre in the United States. The organization also publishes ''American Theatre'' magazine and ''ARTSEA ...

, the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seat ...

Foundation, the

Museum of Glass The Museum of Glass (MOG) is a 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m²) art museum in Tacoma, Washington, dedicated to the medium of glass. Since its founding in 2002, the Museum of Glass has been committed to creating a space for the celebration of the st ...

, the

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Personal life

Allen has three children: Duncan (born 1989), Gardner (born 1994) and Faye (born 1997) with Brian Patton, whom she divorced in 2009 after 21 years of marriage. Allen's ex-husband is a golf-course manager. She was known as Jody Patton, Jody Allen Patton and Jo Allen Patton while married. She is a member of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and the Explorers Club. , Allen lived on

Mercer Island, Washington Mercer Island is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located on an island of the same name in the southern portion of Lake Washington. Mercer Island is in the Seattle metropolitan area, with Seattle to its west and Bellevue t ...

, outside of Seattle.Mike Rogoway
Trail Blazers, Vulcan look ahead as Paul Allen faces cancer
, ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...

'', November 21, 2009

Filmography

Executive producer

* '' Men with Guns'' (1997) * '' The Luzhin Defence'' (2000) * '' The Safety of Objects'' (2001) * ''

The Soul of a Man ''The Soul of a Man'' is a 2003 documentary film, directed by Wim Wenders, as the second instalment of the documentary film series ''The Blues'', produced by Martin Scorsese. The film explores the musical careers of blues musicians Skip James, ...

'' (2003) * '' The Blues'' (2003) * '' Lightning in a Bottle'' (2004) * '' Hard Candy'' (2005) * ''

American Masters ''American Masters'' is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the ...

'': ''No Direction Home: Bob Dylan'' (2005) * '' Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas'' (2006) * '' Where God Left His Shoes'' (2007) * ''Girl Rising'' (2013) * '' Pandora's Promise'' (2013) * ''

We The Economy In Modern English, ''we'' is a Grammatical number, plural, Grammatical person, first-person personal pronoun, pronoun. Morphology In Standard English, Standard Modern English, ''we'' has six distinct shapes for five word Morphology (linguist ...

'' (2014)

Producer

* '' Inspirations'' (1997) * ''

Me & Isaac Newton ''Me & Isaac Newton'' is a 1999 documentary directed by Michael Apted and produced by Clear Blue Sky Productions. Synopsis With a lightly humorous approach, the film explores human advances in the field of sciences. Both Apted and Paul G. Allen, ...

'' (1999) * ''

Titus Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September 81 AD) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death. Before becoming emperor, Titus gained renown as a mili ...

'' (1999) * '' Coastlines'' (2002) * '' Far from Heaven'' (2002)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Jody 1955 births Philanthropists from Washington (state) American sports businesspeople Businesspeople from Seattle Film producers from Washington (state) Lakeside School alumni Living people National Basketball Association owners Whitman College alumni Women National Football League executives Women sports owners 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesswomen 20th-century American philanthropists 21st-century philanthropists American women philanthropists Seattle Seahawks owners 20th-century women philanthropists 21st-century women philanthropists