Paris, Tenn.–Thomas Harrison of Paris has been formally named the new President of Allegro Marinade.
Harrison joined Allegro as a college intern in 2000 and continued his career there learning all aspects of the company’s operations. He was promoted to Vice President in 2007 and has demonstrated the ability to lead the organization both culturally and operationally as they have developed talent, navigated growth and experienced year over year sales increases despite the ongoing pandemic.
Long-time Allegro President John Fuqua announced his retirement in January after 39 years with the company and said of Harrison:
“Thomas Harrison is a unique story… Terry Harrison, Thomas’ father, was one of the first friends I made when I moved to Paris, Tennessee. I got to know the entire Harrison family through Terry and Pop Warner football. Over the years, Thomas being the youngest of the Harrison boys, I kind of kept up with him all the way through playing for the Henry County Patriots… and he reached out to us his Junior year at UT Martin to see if there’d be a possibility of doing an internship at Allegro. We liked Thomas well enough that he interned with us twice! We didn’t really have a spot for Thomas when he first graduated, but we liked the young man, we liked his work ethic, we liked his attitude, his intelligence… and we made him an offer without really knowing his position. We said, ‘You’re going to grow into something,” and that probably laid the foundation to become the next President of Allegro because he worked in every department and he did whatever was asked of him. He worked production. He worked construction when we renovated (our current) building… Thomas has just grown into the position he has now, and he has earned it by proving he can do it.”
Betsy and Dave Willcox started the Allegro company in Paris in the 1950s.
Photo by Allegro Marinade.