Patrick Allen
Administrator, Building Codes Division, State of Oregon, Dept. of Consumer & Business Services

Patrick Allen is the Acting Administrator of Oregon’s Building Codes Division, a part of the Department of Consumer and Business Services. There he manages a staff of over 100 employees responsible for setting state standards for plumbing, electrical, structural and other construction work, providing inspections for specialized structures like boilers and elevators, licensing construction trades, and overseeing the administration of the building code through local building departments across Oregon. He is currently responsible for the design and implementation of a first-in-the-nation statewide on-line building permit system. Mr. Allen has been with the Building Codes Division since 2007.

Prior to his current job, Mr. Allen managed Oregon’s Office of Regulatory Streamlining. There he was responsible for guiding the efforts of state agencies to make their business regulations faster, simpler, cheaper, easier to understand and to comply with, while not reducing Oregon’s standards for consumer, environmental and other protections. Since its opening by Mr. Allen in 2003, the office has worked with state agencies to start over 300 separate projects to simplify business regulations. To-date, over 150 projects have been completed, saving Oregon businesses over 100,000 of hours of time per year, 1.4 million sheets of annual paperwork no longer submitted to the state, and an estimated $15 million in annual business cost savings.

Mr. Allen has also worked for the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department, where he worked with businesses and communities on recruitment, downtown development and small business assistance, served on the staff of a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and spent a decade in the banking industry in Oregon. He has a degree in Economics from Oregon State University.

Patrick Allen lives in Sherwood, Ore., where he has served in a variety of civic roles, and is currently the chair of the Planning Commission.