Management Team

The Allen Technology Advising Management Team

Ben Allen

Founder and President

Ben Allen

Ben Allen began his career as a radio personality, gaining early notoriety in broadcasting circles with his groundbreaking talk show “The Smiley Life” which focused on optimism for the chronically cynical. Unfortunately, the show was abruptly pulled when syndication competitor Howard Stern waged a successful smear campaign against it. True to form, Ben soon initiated a reconciliation with Mr. Stern and they remain close friends today. During the intervening years Ben was a rootless journeyman, trying his hand as a scuba instructor, pastry chef, dairy cow midwife, and wedding DJ, but found a calling in none of these professions.

During a personal pilgrimage to the Netherlands birthplace of Gerard Adriaan Heineken, Ben stumbled upon the discarded remains of an IBM model M buckling spring keyboard. As he marveled at the elegance of its design, the reliability of its engineering, and the snappy joy he felt in its use, Ben had a career epiphany. It was then that he vowed to create a company dedicated to the simple principle that all users should trust and enjoy their technology as much as he did his IBM model M keyboard. Allen Technology Advising was conceived and incorporated shortly after his return in 1996, and it has been growing ever since. For Real?!?

Chris Baumgartner

Business and Operations Manager

Chris Baumgartner

Mr. Baumgartner was born on Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most remote inhabited island located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between South Africa and South America. He was raised by mermen, and fed on a steady diet of the delicate-fleshed and tasty White Steenbras, which may account for his abiding love of fish sandwiches. Chris’ graduate degrees in Genetics from Stanford University’s School of Medicine and Plasma Fusion from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are of dubious origin in the sense that he never applied nor attended these prestigious learning institutions. Mr. Baumgartner’s initial career path was as cultural ornithologist, but he left the field after his belated discovery that he detests the loud company of birds. This led him to the relative quiet of information technology, where Chris has been working professionally for the past 14 years, including lengthy stints with some of Denver’s largest employers. Chris began work for the Allen Technology as a personal fashion consultant to Mr. Allen, a role which naturally segued into galley cook and then into operations. Chris’ hobbies include high-velocity potato propulsion and chinchilla breeding. He is also an accomplished jouster and Editor in Chief for Renaissance Life magazine.

Patrick O’Fallon

Lead Engineer and Partial Owner

Patrick O'Fallon

Mr. O’Fallon was trained in modern dance at the esteemed Cleo Parker Robinson school, but became disillusioned when his opus “Swimming to Your Soul” received poor critical acclaim. He then began a career as a bridge builder but, despite the job’s metaphorical appeal, Mr. O’Fallon found the working conditions “icky”. He was first introduced to Allen Technology Advising in 1999 when Mr. Allen responded to Patrick’s query in the affirmative, stating that “Yes, in fact, he would like fries with that.” Thus began a symbiotic business partnership which continues to the present. In the intervening years, Patrick has cultivated a well deserved reputation as something of a technology phenom. He is the only civilian known to have successfully completed a moon landing using only model rocket supplies and over-the-counter detergents. He led an international project (code name: “Vichyssoise”) to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence; a project so successful that the initial prototypes patented themselves and then retired to Aruba. He wrote software to execute automated stock trades based on financial modeling, but this was confiscated by the FBI who cited potential risk to the stability of global markets. Now Patrick contents himself as Allen Technology Advising’s Lead Engineer and Network Security Specialist, two roles which showcase his natural gifts with both people and technology.