Declan Kelly has resigned as chair and chief government of Teneo, the worldwide communications firm, days after allegations emerged of drunken misconduct at a fundraising live performance.
The corporate stated in an announcement on Tuesday that Kelly would get replaced by co-founder and chief working officer Paul Keary “efficient instantly”.
Along with his co-founder Doug Band, Kelly constructed Teneo into one of many largest and best-connected public relations and strategic consultancies, with 1,250 workers, a blue-chip shopper checklist and a roster of senior advisers drawn from the higher echelons of enterprise and politics on either side of the Atlantic.
He resigned from Teneo on Monday night time, one individual conversant in the matter stated. Kelly had already been faraway from the board of World Citizen, a campaigning group that placed on the live performance, the day after the Might 2 occasion the place he was accused of touching plenty of ladies inappropriately with out their consent.
In an announcement, Kelly stated that he had made “an inadvertent, public and embarrassing mistake for which I took full duty and apologised to these immediately affected, in addition to my colleagues and shoppers”.
He added: “A marketing campaign towards the repute of our agency has adopted and should even proceed within the coming days. Nevertheless, whatever the veracity of any such issues I don’t want them to be an ongoing distraction to the working of our firm.”
His exit, six months after Band additionally left, signifies that Teneo has misplaced its simplest recruiter of latest shoppers. As Teneo grew quickly over the previous decade, Kelly managed immediately a minority of its accounts however he remained a detailed and valued adviser to scores of prime chief executives.
CVC, the enterprise capital group, invested $350m for a majority stake in Teneo in 2019, valuing the corporate at about $700m.
“We wish to thank Declan for his management and dedication over the previous 10 years in constructing Teneo into the world’s pre-eminent CEO advisory agency,” the Teneo board stated on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Kelly instructed the Monetary Occasions final week that the chief had “quickly diminished his work tasks”, was “dedicated to sobriety” and was “endeavor ongoing counselling from healthcare professionals”.
One shopper, Basic Motors, had publicly dropped Teneo as an adviser because the FT first reported on Kelly’s conduct final week.
Further reporting by Oliver Ralph and Stephen Morris
