Allen Clemson
Executive Director
Clemson is a lifelong public servant who served as county administrator for Dallas County from 1985-2009. His responsibility for this major political subdivision of the State of Texas with almost 2.5 million residents included managing an $800 million budget and 7,000 employees. Clemson’s key responsibilities ranged from governmental affairs, planning, economic development, and financial oversight. As the highest ranking, non-elected official, he was responsible for planning, organizing, developing and implementing actions and directives for the Dallas County Commissioners Court.
Clemson delivered many projects during his 24 years as County Administrator, including:
• Oversight and direction of major transportation and facility construction projects totaling more than $1.6 billion.
• Creating financial policies, including a capital improvement financing plan that enabled the county to annually fund tens of millions of dollars of major capital projects without the long-term debt.
• Coordinating large scale IT application selection and installation, including enterprise resource planning, comprehensive justice system and traffic management.
• Co-developing an employee benefit cooperative which joined a variety of public entities, including the NTTA, to provide employee health benefits at a reduced cost.
• Overseeing the outsourcing and privatization of several governmental programs.
He brings 37 years of experience in supervising large staffs with a proven record of bringing them together as a team. Clemson most recently served as special assistant to the vice chancellor and president designate of the University of North Texas Dallas Campus where he oversaw finance and administration and assisted with this institutions transition to an independent university in the University of North Texas System.
Clemson is a native of North Texas and earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Texas.