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Friday, February 14, 2025

Power List interview: Glen Raven’s char Allen Gant Jr.

Allen Gant Jr. joined High Point University President Nido Qubein in the Power List interview, a partnership for discussion with some of the state’s most influential leaders. Business North Carolina’s annual Power List publication spotlights the state’s powerbrokers.

Allen Gant Jr. is chair of Glen Raven, a family owned Alamance County fabrics manufacturer that is among North Carolina’s largest companies. His grandfather started a cotton mill in 1880, while the company produced the first pantyhose in 1958. Efforts to receive a patent failed, others entered the business and Glen Raven no longer makes the product. Its flagship brand, Sunbrella, was launched in 1961. A graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, Gant joined Glen Raven in 1971 and was CEO from 1996 to 2017. He’s a local and statewide civic leader, and also served on national trade policy and textile
industry boards.

This story includes excerpts from Gant’s interview and was edited for clarity.



What makes you such a special, successful executive? The company is in six continents today, has a vertical line of products, and you’ve survived a couple of recessions and COVID. What is it about Allen Gant that makes him tick?
It’s no different than any other successful operation. We’ve got a great team around us, and putting those people in the right place and giving them the authority and responsibility gives them a chance to win. And our team exemplifies leadership. You’ve heard Kelly King mention that leadership is about three simple things: understanding where you are with reality, having the courage to understand where you have to go, and then having the courage to do it. And I just think so many companies just don’t understand where they are. They really just do not honor what kind of condition they’re in and what needs to happen in order to survive.

What are the three things that make a good leader?
Greed is one of the things you do not want to be involved in. That is a real downfall for lots of companies and individuals that accelerate to a great degree, then all of a sudden, they’re no longer there. Greed makes you think very short-term. One of the characteristics of Glen Raven is we think very long-term. Yes, we’re concerned about next quarter, but we’re planning on what we’re going to do for the next 25 years. Long-term investment is one of the principles we stand by.

The second is, you really have to give people the responsibility and then get out of their way. They have to be able to make mistakes and at the same time learn from those mistakes. Sometimes leaders just put themselves in the predominant position and everything has to go through them. Well, you stifle innovation. You stifle leadership qualities that others have. You’ve got to understand where you are, where you’re going to go and how you’re going to get there. Then you can let those people who have that knowledge make that decision.

You speak a lot about innovation. What do you mean by innovation?
You have to be able to think outside the box, but you have to do that in a way that becomes real in its ability to achieve. If you and I were shackled, then we’d spend the next hour or two trying to figure out how to remove those shackles. We wouldn’t spend a single moment on innovation. So you have to free your individuals up so they can innovate in a free vacuum. Now, you can’t be crazy about it, but you have to unshackle them, take away the burdens.

How many times have you heard, “Well that’s the way we’ve done it for 20 years?” So you remove the issue of failure and give the ability to innovate in a free and open way. And so, no idea is bad. At Glen Raven, we think you’ve got to reorganize your efforts about every five to seven years. If you’re not doing that, then you’re not keeping pace with what’s going on in the rest of the world.

Is that because your business is dependent on fashion?
We innovate not only because of our business, but the markets that we serve, as well as the people inside the markets. If you look at the talents that High Point needed 10 years ago, they’re different than they are today. The same people can’t bring those disciplines to the marketplace. So, you’ve got to re-tool. At Glen Raven, we love change. Change is part of our DNA. It’s part of success. It’s part of innovation. We know that we’re going to change again in five to seven years. Just go ahead and count on it, get ready, and bring it to the table.

What effect has AI had on your business?
AI is both a wonder and an evil. There are people that will take advantage of AI in a very evil way. But I do think that AI will be a competitive weapon that is absolutely spectacular. It’s hard for the human mind to gather, through this deluge of data, those relevant points that will make a difference. If I can use AI to determine the color that people are buying around the world in a way that’s quicker, faster than anybody else, then maybe I have a better chance of winning. If, through the search of data, we can determine that if you eat certain fruit three times a day you can cure prostate cancer, but that’s not written about in any journals, it just happens to be the coincidence of things happening around the world. If AI can bring that to the table, then, oh my goodness, what a difference that would make.

You speak about innovation a lot, but also about culture. What does a good culture look like, for Glen Raven or any company,
You have hit on one of the things that I believe is the most important element of having a successful company. The first word that goes in front of culture is care. If you don’t care, you do not have the ability to form a culture that will be productive. What is the most valuable asset that you have? It’s people. What’s between the ears? If you care for that, and you care for those brains, then you have a loyalty that is unique and also will extend the extra effort. If you can harvest the emotional energy out of the creative thinking that you have, then we have the advantage to win.

What does that mean? I’ve never heard that before — emotional energy out of the creativity of people.
Buy in, commitment and loyalty. On your team, who you could text at midnight and you would get an answer at 12:15? Others wouldn’t answer until Monday morning. I would say
to you the one who comes back at 12:15 is committed and cares deeply.

You are so involved in the Piedmont Triad Partnership and you are so connected in Raleigh. You care deeply about the future of this state. When these big companies coming to North Carolina say they’re going to grow from zero to 50,000 employees, I ask myself where are those employees coming from?
It’s a very interesting position that the state finds itself in. We’ve caught the bus, and I’m not sure we know the consequences of catching the bus, nor have we put in place the appropriate resources that will sustain growth that we’re looking at.

What resources? Community colleges? Education? Highways?
It’s back to the basics. Do we have enough nurses? Do we have enough firemen? Do we have enough doctors? A partnership between the public school system, the private school system, the community colleges and the universities needs to be coordinated to make sure we balance with the investment we’re making for the future.

Do we have the right infrastructure for roads? Water?  Sewer? Do we have the right educational process? You know, there are 5000 people that retire every year from Fort Liberty. Most of them are in their mid-40s to 50 years old, and they’re trained and they’re disciplined. Do we have a channel to keep them in North Carolina? 

We are in the midst of a political campaign. What would be your advice to the next governor?
Making sure that our investment in the future matches up with those resources is going to be really important. For instance, we have wonderful medical care in North Carolina. We do not have a children’s hospital that is world-class. Why would we not have that here? We have agriculture that is second to none. If you lay a hoe down in Eastern North Carolina, it will sprout roots and grow. I mean, it’s unbelievable. So are we developing the right crops. We have water. Are we using it appropriately?


So you’re suggesting the governor have a task force that focuses on the most important needs?
Yes, and the first one they would do would be education. K-12 needs a complete rewrite in North Carolina. That is probably the No. 1 issue today. Quite frankly, it is not nearly as hard as we make it out to be.


What has kept us from doing that? Is it pay? Recruitment?
We went to a system of having elected school boards throughout the counties of North Carolina. These people run for election and you have no idea what qualifications they bring. Most of them are retired teachers that have an ax to grind. You don’t need a mad professor. You need somebody who really understands the marketplace.

So, Allen, you’ve had a celebrated life in many ways. I know your father and your grandfather would be so proud of you. What do you want to do with the rest of your life?
Our real passion is early childhood development. That’s probably where you can get the best bang for the buck and can make the needle move. We’re talking about birth through pre-kindergarten. A couple of years ago, I looked at the births in Alamance County and 47% were to ladies who did not have a high school diploma. That’s a pretty tough situation. Do those infants eat right? Do they get the right brain development? How do we help them and guide them towards getting a better education and having the opportunity to make the right decisions. We can’t make the decisions for them, but we can put them in a position where they can make better decisions because they’re educated. 

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