Paul Allen

Paul Allen has founded eight companies during more than two decades as a tech entrepreneur. His first company was Infobases, a CD ROM publishing company known for its religious and educational content. This electronic content publishing business led directly to his next company, Ancestry.com, which he co-founded in 1997. Paul devised Ancestry’s content subscription business model. He also pioneered many of the internet marketing channels that Ancestry has used to become one of Utah’s most valuable companies. In 2007 he founded FamilyLink, whose Facebook apps for families “went viral” and attracted more than 120 million users by 2010. From 2012-2017, Paul lived in Washington D.C. where he worked for Gallup and oversaw the “global strengths movement” based on the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment. His latest company, Strengths, Inc., is partnering with Gallup to go beyond the 16 million people who have discovered their strengths, and reach many more people throughout the world.

Paul taught entrepreneurship for two years at Utah Valley University and internet marketing for two years at BYU. He was an Ernst & Young Utah Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000, and the MarketingSherpa national Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008. He is a fellow of the Utah Genealogical Association, and was named a Cyber Pioneer in 2010 by the Cyber Law Section of the Utah State Bar. He was the honored alumnus of the BYU Humanities College in 2016, having graduated in 1990 with a BA in Russian. Paul and his wife Christy live in Provo. They have eight children and four grandchildren.