SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Kreg Allison, a Sidney native, has been chosen as the director of the Division of Real Estate for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. The 1994 Sidney High School graduate was unanimously chosen by the Illinois Senate.
The 40-year-old Allison was appointed to head the department by Gov. Bruce Rauner in January. Allison is the son of Diane Stephenson of Sidney and the late Timothy Allison.
As director, Allison serves as the head regulator for the real estate industry in Illinois overseeing professional education, licensure, regulation, and discipline for over 80,000 licensees working in seven professions.
He also manages a large government agency of approximately 40 employees operating out of offices in Chicago, Des Plaines, and Springfield. He administers the department with an annual budget of $8 million.
He resides in the River North neighborhood of Chicago. He is single with no children.
Allison told the SDN, he was inspired to pursue a career in law by Judge Thomas Kerrigan Sr., Rodney Blake Sr., and Harry Faulkner. He said Judge Norman Smith gave him sound advice regarding which school to attend to have the least amount of debt.
Allison’s interest in politics surfaced in 1992 when he campaigned for H. Ross Perot for president. In 1994, he began his career in government as a summer intern for then-U.S. Congressman John Boehner in his Troy office.
In 2016, he was elected as a delegate for Ohio Gov. John Kasich from the 7th Congressional District of Illinois to the 2016 Republican National Convention. Allison and his girlfriend, Helene Cissell, attended the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this past July.
Prior to joining the regulation department, Allison was senior counsel and corporate officer for Avison Young, a commercial real estate services firm with more than 2,100 real estate professionals located in 73 offices in five countries.
Allison also served as the Administrator and Chief Legal Officer for the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts office in Cincinnati. There he managed the largest such office in Ohio with more than 300 employees and a $15 million annual budget.
In recognition for that work, Allison was named to the Cincinnati Business Courier’s Forty Under 40 Class of 2008.
Licensed to practice law in Illinois and Ohio, Allison earned his law degree and his Master of Business Administration at Ohio State University. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science, cum laude, from Vanderbilt University.
Allison is a cancer survivor. “At the beginning of 2013, I was diagnosed with late stage cancer. Fortunately, the doctors think they were successful in curing me of the cancer by treating me with chemotherapy and surgery.
He is also a music enthusiast enjoying particularly choral, country, and folk. He recalled his high school days when he sang in the school choir, chancel choir at Sidney First United Methodist Church, and later, the Concert Choir and Voices of Praise (gospel choir) at Vanderbilt University. In his spare time, Allison takes banjo lessons.
