The chairman and chief executive officer of BB&T Corp. will give a lecture Thursday, Nov. 13, at West Virginia University .

John A. Allison will speak onPrincipled Leadershipat 4 p.m. in Room 459 of the Business and Economics Building. The talkwhich is free and open to the publicis part of the BB&T Lecture Series in WVU s College of Business and Economics .

In a rapidly changing and unpredictable world, individuals and organizations need a clear set of sound, fundamental principles to guide their actions,Allison said.At BB&T, we believe that the foundation of organizational success, personal success and, most importantly, personal happiness is having the right set of values and living those values.

BB&T is the nations 14th largest financial holding company.

Allison, who began his service with BB&T in 1971, became its president in 1987 and was elected chairman and CEO in July 1989. BB&Ts assets have increased during his careerfrom about $275 million in 1971 to $137 billion today.

Allison earned a bachelors degree in business administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1971 and a masters degree in business administration at Duke University in 1974. He also attended the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University in 1981.

BB&Ts Charitable Foundation provided funds for the lecture series as part of an endowment that created the BB&T Chair of Free Market Thought.