Early life, family, educational background
American philanthropist, entrepreneur and businesswoman Jo Lynn ‘Jody’ Allen was born on 3 February 1959, in Seattle, Washington State USA. Jody also goes by the names Jo Lynn Patton, Jody Allen Patton, Jody Patton, Jo Allen, and Jo Allen Patton. She has an older brother, Paul Allen who is the co-founder of Microsoft. They are the children of associate director of the University of Washington Libraries, Kenneth Sam Allen, and schoolteacher Edna Faye Allen (née Gardner).
The family lived in Wedgwood, Seattle where Jody enrolled at the exclusive private Lakeside School, and matriculated in 1975. She then moved to Walla Walla, Washington to study drama at Whitman College from 1980.
Jody was the CEO of Vulcan Inc., her brother’s investment and project management company, from 1986 when it was founded until 2015. She is currently the president and co-founder of The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
Career
Jody co-founded Vulcan Inc. with Paul in 1986. The company was started to help manage the Allen family business, and their charitable events and various endeavors. The previous chief financial officer of Vulcan described her as ‘responsible for having the trains run on time… a particular passion for real estate development, building things in general.’
In 1990, she co-founded another business with her brother – the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. To date, the foundation has granted over $469 million to more than 1,400 non-profit organizations.
Jody now works as the vice-chair of First & Goal Inc. which supervises the National Football League’s (NFL) Seattle Seahawks. When Paul was considering purchasing the Seahawks in 1997, Jody did her best to advise him throughout the process. A Seattle reporter said, ‘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.’ She also negotiated the public-private partnership that resulted in the Lumen Field being constructed in Seattle.
With the help of Jody, Paul chose to buy the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Portland Trail Blazers in 1988 for the price of $70 million. In 1997 he paid $194 million for the Seahawks franchise to keep them from transferring to California.
In 2003 the siblings co-founded the Allen Institute for Brain Science, a non-profit organization based in Seattle, of which Jody is the chairperson of the board. Their organization provides public resources to scientists worldwide for free. Other boards that Jody has sat on are the Theatre Communications Group, the Seahawks Charitable Foundation, the Museum of Glass, the University of Washington Foundation, ArtsFund, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Los Angeles Film Festival.
She was also involved in negotiations regarding Portland, Oregon’s Moda Center construction; she assisted in bringing the EMP Museum to Seattle – which has since been renamed the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) – and Seattle Cinerama’s renovation. Jody is the president of Vulcan Productions, involved in outreach initiatives, digital programs, and producing films. Jody herself has executively-produced or produced over a dozen feature films and documentaries, including 1999’s “Me & Isaac Newton,” 2001’s “The Safety of Objects,” 2004’s “Lightning in a Bottle”, and 2014’s “We the Economy.” In 2013 she financially invested in two documentaries, both directed by Richard E. Robbins – “Pandora’s Promise,” a documentary on nuclear power, and “Girl Rising.”
https://www.facebook.com/Seahawks/posts/pfbid02mxWL2A7z5iGpeANJMCVxgaZnYBxGjMUDiBAtL56u3xA9HNN1NXsJrPnmDGRiP4h1l
According to a USDA report, inspectors destroyed 72lbs of giraffe bones that belonged to Vulcan in August 2011. Vulcan’s security officers declared that Jody had them smuggled out of Botswana, having bribed police officers to get away with it.
2013 was also the year Jody was accused of sexual harassment, bribery, and smuggling by five former security guards; they settled the lawsuit out of court that November. Around 15 former members of Paul and Jody’s personal security instituted civil claims against the Allen siblings, and 13 of them agreed to settle out of court. The claims stated that Jody not only sexually harassed her bodyguards who were made up of veterans of elite military units, but also ordered them to smuggle animal bones out of Antarctica and Africa. Two of their former employees claimed they overheard that Jody illegally imported penguin skulls from Antarctica and ivory from Africa, but didn’t have any evidence to prove their claims. However, records filed at the US Department of Agriculture were able to confirm some of the allegations. Jody and the security guards accused of smuggling invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Part of the sexual harassment allegations was that Jody apparently purchased tight men’s swim trunks for her guards and asked them to put on a fashion show for her. When asked about this while under oath, Jody did not deny the claims, but rather declined to discuss them at all. The Allens’ attorneys called the accusations ‘meritless’, and accused the employees of wanting to extort money from the siblings.
Jody is on the board of trustees as a president of the non-profit Museum of Pop Culture which honors music and pop culture. The Seattle Times reported on the museum, ‘Although Allen [Paul] gets most of the credit… it is the brainchild of both these close siblings. Allen [Paul] provided the money and inspiration; Patton [Jody], as executive director, is largely responsible for the vision that made it happen.’
In November 2021, Chirs McGowan, who was the CEO and President of both the Trail Blazers and Vulcan Sports & Entertainment, quit the position that he’d held for nine years. Reports claim that he made this decision based on his frustration working with Bert Kolde (who was Paul’s roommate in college) and Jody. The Trail Blazers’ President of Basketball Operations, Neil Olshey was fired in December 2021 following an investigation that discovered he fostered a workplace filled with sexual harassment and toxicity for over a decade. Larry Miller – the previous Trail Blazers president – gave his insight: ‘I heard a number of stories about how badly people felt Neil treated them… It got to a boiling point, and it’s something that Jody and Bert should have been well aware of, and done something about it.’ Larry has very little trust in Jody and Bert – ‘The Trail Blazers are not as successful as they could have been. Jody is deferring everything to Bert, and he’s not the right guy for the team.’ When Paul was alive, he would call upon Bert for advice, but would ultimately make decisions himself. Now, Jody trusts Bert to decide everything.
In July 2022, there were rumors that the Seattle Seahawks were for sale. However, as the trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust and the chair of the Seattle Seahawks, Jody released a statement clarifying that neither the Portland Trail Blazers nor the Seahawks were up for sale, moreover, she also said that there are no current discussions in place regarding selling either team. ‘… My long-term focus is building championship teams that our communities are proud of…’ She added that Paul expected the coaches and leaders of the teams to create winning teams that would constantly deliver amazing results. Although they’re not for sale now, she did mention that one day, they will be, ‘A time will come when that changes, given Paul’s plans to dedicate the vast majority of his wealth to philanthropy’. She explained that complex and sizeable estates – such as the teams – take 10 to 20 years to dwindle before selling. ‘There is no pre-ordained timeline by which the teams must be sold,’ she concluded.
"Damian [Lillard] wanted to sit down & have a conversation with Jody [Allen] about the team and she didn’t return his call. Then he tried to email her. Eventually she just never responded and put him in touch with Bert [Kolde, Blazers' Vice Chair]."
(via https://t.co/xzAdLZrfPl) pic.twitter.com/SIY8klmJCV
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 7, 2022
When Larry was asked by The Post what he thought, he said he would tell her to, ‘absolutely take the offer.’ When sources spoke to The Post, they shared that there is an increasing amount of unhappiness behind the scenes. They accuse Jody of being ‘toxic’ after her harassment allegations, and reports of her violating importation laws. They feel that her behavior has spread out into how she runs the teams. The players are reportedly unimpressed with Jody’s refusal to take their calls, and listen to their issues with how the team is managed. One of their players, Damian Lillard, specifically tried to contact her, ‘… she didn’t return his call. Then he tried to email her. Eventually, she just never responded and put him in touch with Bert.’ The source added, ‘When you own a team, there are critical key decisions to make, and you should be the one involved in making the decisions.’
Personal life
Jody married golf-course manager Brian Patton in 1988 – the pair have three children together, Duncan born in 1989, Gardner in 1994, and Faye in 1997. 2009 marked 21 years of marriage, but also the year they divorced. While married, Jody was referred to as Jo Allen Patton, Jody Allen Patton, and Jody Patton. Following their divorce, Jody moved to Mercer Island, Washington State, just outside of Seattle.
She is currently a member of the Explorers Club and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. She also owns many estates, including the Thurston Estate in Hawaii which is valued at $7.5 million. She owns the Lopez Island Estate on Lopez Island, the Mercer Island Estate in Seattle, a Beverly Hills condo, a Carbon Beach Home in the Grand Tetons, a New York apartment, and a Teton Ridge Estate in France.
Jody also owns a Meduse yacht, an Octopus yacht, a Tatoosh yacht, a Yellow Submarine, an Octopus helicopter, and a MIG-29 just to name a few assets. She also inherited some of her brother’s cars, including a 1988 Mazda B Series and a Porsche 959, among others.
She currently resides in a luxurious estate in Wedgwood, Seattle.
Family’s personal life
Her older brother Paul Gardner Allen was born on 21 January 1953 in Seattle. He also attended Lakeside School before studying at Washington State University, from which he dropped out. Paul was an entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, best known for co-founding Microsoft Corporation in 1975, alongside his childhood friend Bill Gates.
In 1983, Paul was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma – cancer that attacks the lymphatic system. Due to his declining health, Paul stopped performing his regular work at Microsoft, but stayed on as vice-chairperson.
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Paul sadly passed away on 15 October 2018 from septic shock caused by his cancer. At the time, Forbes reported that his net worth was estimated at $20.3 billion, but during his lifetime, he’d donated over $2 billion to causes supporting wildlife and environmental conservation, education, healthcare, community services, and the arts. He was continuously awarded honors and awards.
Appearance
Jody has blonde hair and blue eyes. Her height and weight are unknown.
Net worth and salary
As of August 2022, her net worth is estimated at $20.3 billion – the same as Paul’s when he passed. This makes perfect sense, as Jody inherited many of her brother’s assets, and has been able to maintain this wealth, thanks to her real estate and businesses.
