Allen Collinsworth serves as the president and founder of Fara Group Inc., an Istanbul based consulting company specializing in new business development and M&A advisory.
Collinsworth began his international career with the EastWest Institute, a New York based think and do tank. Here he started and managed the Institute's Corporate Program which opened its high level government consultations and programmatic work to corporate leaders.
Amongst the initiatives he led through the program were the Russian Private Sector Initiative, the Eurasia Strategy Group, and numerous ministerial level retreats. This combined with the program's corporate advisory work contributed substantially to the Institute's fund raising.
He has extensive investment banking and deal creation experience beginning with Goldman Sachs in the mid-90s. He later established financial advisory companies serving an international clientele focused on Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia. Amongst his clients were the Istanbul Municipality (1999-2003) where he served as the sell side privatization advisor as well as a number of High Net Worth family offices. Today he works with a cadre of funds providing deal flow as well as political risk assessments. He organized the two largest trade delegations to visit Turkey. A $13.5 trillion fund consortium in 2007 and $8.5 trillion in 2012.
With over 15 years of experience in Turkey he has helped international companies tap into Turkey's human resources and geographic advantages to service the surrounding regions. Leading Fara Group, he helped turn around a politically complex construction works project at Al Assad Airbase, Iraq. This involved replacing a subcontractor, recruiting and managing a Turkish engineering team, and mobilizing construction equipment and building materials from Turkey. In the process he maintained the support of the primary client, the US Government. His company also negotiated and managed the entry of a major fast food restaurant franchise to Kazakhstan in partnership with a leading Kazakh family organization. Part of this effort entailed building the supply chain.
Collinsworth has created business opportunities and helped find critical relationships that make others feasible. He has advised mid-sized companies in the agro, restaurant, logistics, construction, biomass energy, timber, security, power generation, media, and retail sectors. Through his professional network and knowledge of local business, he has brought clarity to his clients' decision making.
He has advised leaders of government in such areas as public relations, investment promotion, and foreign policy. Some of his concepts were passed up to state levels and became government sponsored programs.
Collinsworth is a published expert on foreign policy and anchored Corridor39, a television program (aired on 6News Turkey), on geopolitical trends impacting economies along the 39th latitude. Corridor39 later became the name of another M&A advisory and political risk advisory firm he now manages. He has been interviewed on FOX News and Al Jazeera and spoken at conferences around the world.
Collinsworth has lead several social responsibility initiatives. He co-founded of DRUM (Dialogue Respect Understanding through Music) which served to defuse ideological inspired violence through music style events. Additionally, he designed a sanitation product (patent pending) aimed to provide a toilet alternative to the 2.6 billion without toilet access. Collinsworth sits on EWI’s Board of Counselors and Advisory Council of the University of California Berkeley’s Program on Entrepreneurship and Development in the Middle East.
Collinsworth graduated from Birmingham-Southern College where he was an All American tennis player and in 2010 was awarded the Outstanding Young Alumnae Award. He holds master degrees from the London School of Economics (MScEconomic Geography) and the University of Alabama in Birmingham (MBA with honors).