Declan Kelly, a former official to President Obama and aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has resigned as CEO of PR firm Teneo after his drunken behavior at a charity event. Kelly previously served as Clinton’s special envoy to Northern Ireland and then served as an adviser to her during her 2008 presidential campaign.
Kelly’s drunk and brazen behavior reportedly occurred at a Global Citizen charity event co-chaired by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle. President Biden also reportedly attended the event virtually and delivered a message.
CNBC reports:
In his own statement on Teneo’s web site posted Tuesday Kelly said “On May 2nd I made an inadvertent, public and embarrassing mistake for which I took full responsibility and apologized to those directly affected, as well as my colleagues and clients.”
“A campaign against the reputation of our firm has followed and may even continue in the coming days,” Kelly said. “However, regardless of the veracity of any such matters I do not want them to be an ongoing distraction to the running of our company.”
“In order to protect the employees of Teneo and its clients, and with my family’s strong support, I have decided to leave the company and resign as Chairman and CEO,” Kelly said.
General Motors reportedly cut ties with Teneo over Kelly’s drunken conduct.
