Teneo’s boss was expelled from charity after allegations of drunkenness

Declan Kelly, an influential adviser to Fortune 500 executives, has lost his board of directors to the Global Citizen campaign group and has relinquished some of his responsibilities as head of strategy firm Teneo following allegations of drunk misconduct at a fundraising concert.

Five people informed about the matter said Kelly behaved inappropriately at a party on May 2 related to the Global Citizen big-screen concert. It was presided over by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and featured artists such as Jennifer Lopez.

Two of these people and one person with direct knowledge claimed that the inappropriate behavior included non-consensual contact of several women.

“At a big cocktail party that night attended by dozens of people, including board members and Global Citizen guests, Kelly got drunk and behaved inappropriately with some women and men at the event,” he said. say a Kelly spokesman, who added that he “deeply regrets his actions” and had apologized to those he had offended.

The next day, Global Citizen removed him from its board of directors, two people reported on the matter, while another said Kelly was being asked to resign. Global Citizen has launched an independent investigation into the episode, which has not yet concluded.

In a statement in response to questions from the Financial Times about whether Kelly was involved in improperly touching women at the event, Global Citizen said: “The incidents were reported to Global Citizen on May 3 and May 3. , Declan Kelly was removed from the board “.

The board of the organization is chaired by Christopher Stadler, an executive at CVC Capital Partners who led the private equity firm $ 350 million investment in Teneo in 2019. This deal gave it a majority stake and valued Teneo at $ 700 million.

The incident raises questions about the future of Teneo, the 1,200-person public relations firm led by Kelly, which has been designed as “the world’s first CEO consulting firm.”

Kelly remains chairman and CEO, but has told senior colleagues at the firm that he is handing over some of his duties to others on the global management committee.

His spokesman said he had “temporarily reduced his work responsibilities”, that he was “committed to sobriety” and that he was “permanently advising health professionals”.

Kelly, who has worked for years with Global Citizen, was the organizer of the so-called event Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World, which sought to gather support for a wider distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine.

The event featured messages from public figures, including Pope Francis and US President Joe Biden.

Artists from Lopez to Selena Gomez conducted interviews on red carpets against a backdrop with the logos of Teneo and several of its customers, including Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines.

Kelly is known for advising some of the largest companies in the world on how to position themselves as responsible social actors.

“It is absolutely clear now that unless you connect your purpose and values ​​to all your stakeholders and the world at large, you will be left behind,” he said in a promotional video for Global Citizen in February.

Kelly, who was appointed by Hillary Clinton to be the U.S. State Department’s economic envoy to Northern Ireland in 2009, has leveraged her political and corporate connections to support Global Citizen fundraising concerts .

His change of role to Teneo comes six months after his co-founder, Doug Band, resigned as president of the firm following an article detailing the severance of relations with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, whose initiative helped launch the Clinton Global Initiative.

Kelly and Band founded the firm in 2011 and have since aggressively expanded through a series of offerings, investing in WestExec Advisors, a Washington geopolitical risk consultancy, in March and completing the acquisition of the practice of restructuring services at Deloitte UK earlier this month.

Emphasizing Teneo’s influence on business and politics, his list senior advisors it includes former Dow Chemical, IBM and Xerox executives, as well as Paul Ryan, the former president of the U.S. House of Representatives, and William Hague, the former leader of the UK Conservative Party.

Amber Rudd, a former UK Home Secretary, joined as a senior adviser last year.

Prior to founding Teneo, Kelly worked in a variety of communications roles, including at FTI Consulting, where he served as an executive after acquiring Financial Dynamics, a public relations firm, where he was a member of the management team.

In April, Kelly co-founded a new investment firm called Integrum Holdings, described as an innovative, mission-oriented company focused on “technology-enabled services.”