Rowan Allen
Prof. Dr. Rowan Allen | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2020 | |
| 14th President of the United Republic of Calradia | |
| Assumed office January 5, 2020 | |
| Vice President | Alan Mortage |
| Preceded by | Edouard Arne Kirk |
| 76th Minister of Health | |
| In office January 10, 2010 – January 28, 2015 | |
| President | Edouard Arne Kirk |
| Preceded by | Gerelt E. Baatar |
| Succeeded by | Beatrice Faern |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 7, 1954 Uxhal, Swadia,  Calradia |
| Political party | United Calradia Party |
| Spouse(s) | Jennifer Allen (m. 1983) |
| Children |
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| Residence | Praven Prime Palace |
| Alma mater |
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| Occupation |
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Rowan Mitchell Allen (born 7 December 1954) is a Calradian politician and retired surgeon who currently serves as the 14th and current President of the United Republic since 2020. Prior to his presidency, he served as the Chief Surgeon of the Guirrovan Commemorial Hospital before being appointed as the Minister of Health under the Kirk Administration in 2010. He was admitted as a member of the United Calradia Party and subsequently nominated to be its presidential candidate in 2019, was elected president in the election of the same year, and was reelected to a second term in 2024.
A surgeon by profession, he spent most of his early career to the innovation of surgical methods, and specialized mostly on oncology. His doctoral dissertation was dedicated to the surgical intervention against cancer tumors on a molecular level, and he was credited with several groundbreaking innovations on tumor removal in collaboration with other prominent surgeons, such as Merrick Vadigar. For his contributions, he was appointed by the Guirrovan Commemorial Hospital to serve as the Chief of the Oncological Surgery Department in 1998, before finally being promoted to Chief Surgeon in 2003, during which he was responsible for surgical and logistical matters in the hospital.
His perceived managerial skills and attentiveness towards budgetary details and decisions impressed then-Senator Edouard Arne Kirk, who visited the hospital for a working visit with the Senate Economic and Well-being Committee in 2008, and were the primary reasons for Allen's appointment as Minister of Health under the Kirk Administration in 2010. His tenure as the Minister of Health has been considered to be one of the most effective in the ministry's 130 year-long existence, and was especially praised for its wide-reaching implementation of the newly passed Universal Care Act in 2012, although candid political opinions made by Allen throughout his five years in office were constant points of criticism. After his departure from office in 2015, Allen continued to provide counsel for President Kirk on health-related issues in an unofficial capacity. This extended until 2018, when he announced his surprise candidacy for president under the UCP banner, and won both the nomination and a closely contested election in 2019 as a dark horse candidate.
As president, he oversaw the country's response against the NH-20 pandemic through the Presidential Decree on the Health Emergency and the signing of the Pandemic Response Act of 2020, and was acclaimed for his administration's relatively quick response and international leadership, which was often credited as a driving factor in the pandemic's eventual reclassification as an endemic in January 2021. To address the economic recession caused by the pandemic, Allen signed bipartisan bills to distribute economic stimulus packages to struggling businesses, and subsidies towards vulnerable economic sectors such as manufacturing and tourism. In foreign policy, Allen's administration was heavily involved in efforts to improve the international climate change regime, and was instrumental in the creation of the STRIDES Oversight Council. Allen continued Kirk's policies of Calradian military jurisdiction of the Otherworld, and authorized the creation of a permanent mission to its local governments. Most notably, he oversaw the leadup to Calradia's intervention over the Wasserian invasion of the Aletack region, and eventually gave orders to topple its military junta and occupy the country through a controversial military operation. Despite seeing a significant drop in approval ratings caused by Calradia's continued occupation of Wasseria, Allen was reelected in the 2024 presidential election, receiving over 52% of the popular votes and defeating Governor Aurelia Haringoth of the SFP.