The Teneo chief was expelled from charity after alleging drunken misconduct

Declan Kelly, executive director of Fortune 500, has lost the seat of the Global Citizen campaign team and left some of his responsibilities as head of the Teneo strategy company after he complained of drunken behavior at a fundraising concert.

Five people on the subject said Kelly acted inappropriately in connection with the May 2 concert offered by Global Citizen. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were in the lead and Jennifer Lopez was the artist.

Two of these people and one person with direct knowledge claimed that the inappropriate behavior included touches of disagreement from some women.

“Dozens of people attended a large cocktail party in the afternoon, including members and guests of the Global Citizen committee. Mr. Kelly was overwhelmed and acted inappropriately with some women and men at the event,” Kelly’s spokeswoman said. he repents ”and apologized to those who insulted him.

The next day Global Citizen removed him from his board, as two people reported on the matter, asking another to resign Kelly. Global Citizen has launched an independent investigation into the episode, which is yet to be completed.

During the ceremony, Kelly responded to the Financial Times to find out if she had anything to do with touching women inappropriately: “On May 3, Global Citizen received the incident and on May 3, Declan Kelly was removed from management.”

The management of the organization is Christopher Stadler, CEO of CVC Capital Partners, the head of the private equity firm $ 350 million investment in Teneon 2019. That deal gave Teneo a majority stake and was worth $ 700 million.

The incident raises questions about the future of Teneo, the future of a company that has public relations with 1,200 people, which Kelly has described as a “consulting firm for the world’s top executives.”

Kelly remains president and CEO, but has told senior colleagues at the company that he directs some of his duties to others on the global management committee.

His spokesman said he had “temporarily reduced his responsibilities at work”, was “committed to simplicity” and was “constantly advising health professionals”.

He was the organizer of an event called Kelly, which has been with Global Global Citizen for years Vax Live: A concert to reunite the world, with the aim of securing support for a wider distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

The event featured messages from public figures such as Pope Francis and US President Joe Biden.

Artists from Lopez to Selena Gomez conducted red carpet interviews with the logos of Teneo and some of its customers, including Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines.

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

“It’s absolutely clear now that if you don’t connect your goal and values ​​with all your stakeholders and the wider world, you’re going to be left behind,” he said. promotional video For Global Citizen in February.

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

The change of role he made at Teneon came six months after he was its founder. Doug Band, who resigned as president of the company after an article outlining the severance of his relationship with former US President Bill Clinton, whose Clinton Global Initiative was launched.

The company was founded by Kelly and Band in 2011 and has since aggressively expanded through a number of agreements, including investing in WestExec Advisors, a Washington geopolitical risk consultancy, and completing the acquisition of Deloitte UK’s restructuring services practice this month.

Emphasizing the impact Teneo has on business and politics, on his list senior consultants It includes Dow Chemical, former CEOs of IBM and Xerox, and Paul Ryan, former president of the U.S. House of Representatives, and William Hague, former head of the UK Conservative Party.

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

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

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