Gallop Quits Columbia, Will Join Allen & Co.

Richard C. Gallop, president and chief operating officer of Columbia Pictures Industries, said Thursday that he will resign to join Allen & Co., an investment banking firm with close ties to Columbia and its parent company, Coca-Cola Co.

No replacement will be named, according to a statement issued by Columbia Chairman and Chief Executive Francis T. Vincent Jr., who said he intends to continue to call upon Gallop as a consultant.

Gallop, 47, joined Columbia in 1981 as general counsel after serving as the company’s outside lawyer for two years.

At Allen & Co., he will be joining a firm headed by Herbert A. Allen, who controlled nearly 6% of Columbia’s stock when the company was acquired by Coca-Cola in 1982. Allen joined the Coca-Cola board, and his firm has represented the company in various entertainment ventures. The investment banking firm and Columbia are headquartered in the same Fifth Avenue office building in New York. Gallop, Vincent and Allen are all alumni of Williams College.

Gallop said his resignation would become effective Dec. 31. In addition to his Columbia posts, he is resigning as executive vice president of Coca-Cola’s entertainment business sector. That sector has one other executive vice president, Frank Biondi Jr.