Longtime Baylor fundraiser Allen Holt ’80 named to lead Baylor Line Foundation

The Baylor Line Foundation (BLF) has hired Allen Holt ’80 as its new executive vice president.

Holt, who served the Baylor Alumni Association as its director of development from 2008 to 2013, will start Nov. 1, 2016.  He returns to the BLF after nearly three years as director of development for the George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor. He also served as a regional development director in Baylor’s Houston development office from 1986 to 2000.

“We could not be more proud to have Allen Holt rejoin our team,” said BLF President Fred Norton ’80, JD ‘83. “Allen is perfectly positioned to lead the Baylor Line Foundation (formerly the Baylor Alumni Association). He has a long history serving Baylor alumni and models the character and timeless values of Baylor’s founders.”

Holt has spent much of his career as a fundraiser, working in development for the Memorial Hermann Foundation in Houston, the Baylor College of Medicine, and the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin as its director of annual giving.

“I’m honored to have been chosen to lead this great organization, which has played such an important role in supporting Baylor University over the years,” Holt said. “I look forward to working with the Board of Directors, our members and all alumni to continue building on our efforts to tell the stories of the Baylor family through the Baylor Line and our new Oral Histories project; increase the number and size of our legacy scholarships, and speak with an independent voice committed to preserving the values that drove the creation of this association of Baylor alumni and friends by President Rufus Burleson in 1859.”

A native of Mexia who grew up in Houston, Holt and his wife Gail, a 1983 Baylor graduate, have a blended family of seven children ranging in age from 19 to 29.  Their decision to move back to Waco for the Truett job was featured on HGTV’s Fixer Upper TV show with Chip and Joanna Gaines in January 2015.