AT&T; Acting Chief Has Own Style : But Allen Expected to Follow Olson’s Plan for Company

Robert E. Allen, AT&T;’s acting chairman and the likely permanent successor to the late James E. Olson, isn’t much like the previous head of the nation’s eighth-largest company.

“In style, they’re different as night and day,” said Robert B. Morris III, who follows the company for Prudential-Bache Securities. “Mr. Olson was gregarious, forceful and a take-charge individual. Mr. Allen is much more of a methodical, reserved individual.”

As such, Morris added, Allen fits more comfortably into Ma Bell’s historic mode than did Olson, a man who worked his way up through the organization after beginning with the company at age 17, cleaning manholes. Nonetheless, Morris added, the company’s direction “is set for now. Mr. Allen’s job will be to bring it off.”

Allen took over from Olson on an acting basis late last month after the former chairman became ill. Analysts expect him to be named chairman as soon as Wednesday, when AT&T; holds its annual meeting in Denver.

A 53-year-old native of Joplin, Mo., Allen joined Indiana Bell in 1957 upon graduating from Wabash College. In the Bell tradition, he worked at various subsidiaries, and in 1981, became president of the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Cos.

Upon AT&T;’s massive divestiture on Jan. 1, 1984, when the company gave up its local telephone companies, Allen became AT&T;’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. A year later he became chairman and chief executive of AT&T; Information Systems, the company’s computer unit, and he moved up to president and chief operating officer when Olson was named chairman on Sept. 1, 1986.

Should Allen be named chairman, Morris said, a likely successor for his job as president and chief operating officer would be Randall L. Tobias, 46. Tobias is vice chairman, heading AT&T;’s information and telecommunications divisions.