Michael J. Kelly

Mike Kelly is the founder and CEO of Kelly/Newman Advisors. KNA invests in and advises technology, digital media, marketing and advertising related companies on growth and exit strategies. Over his career in the media, marketing and tech industries Kelly has served as CEO, President, Chairman, or board director at well over a dozen enterprises, large and small, public and private. He is a noted pioneer of the digital media industry.

Prior to Kelly/Newman, Mike served as CEO and President of The Weather Channel Companies from 2009 to 2012 after its acquisition by Bain, Blackstone and NBCU. There he led the company’s digital transformation including the launch of the Weather Channel mobile app. Under his leadership the company grew to have a $4.2 Billion valuation.

From 2004-2008 he was the President of AOL Media Networks, where he assembled a world class team and built a $2.3 billion-dollar digital advertising revenue business in less than 3 years. While President he conducted over $1.2 billion in M&A including the purchase and successful integration of Advertising.com. AOL media networks was among the very first data driven advertising businesses of scale and is still among only a handful of digital ad companies to surpass $2 billion in annual advertising revenue.

Prior to AOL Kelly was the President of the Global Media group at Time Warner and was also on the launch team and later Publisher at Entertainment Weekly magazine, among the fastest growing mass market magazines in history.

He has significant board experience serving as Chairman, Committee Chair and Director on 4 public and 9 private company boards. Kelly is on the Boards of NYSE listed company Cars.com, Ad-Tech leader Quantcast, and is the Chairman of two London- based digital advertising platforms, Dianomi and Sliide.

Over his career Mike has advised or facilitated exits valued at over $2 billion. He was the Chairman at the enterprise software company Colspace (acquired by MediaOcean/Vista partners in 2016), was the Chairman of Unruly Media (acquired by Newscorp in 2015), and was on the board of NYSE listed company Bankrate, where he was Chair of the comp committee. (acquired by Red Ventures in 2017). He was also founder and CEO of American Town Networks, among the first comprehensive hyper-local digital platforms.

Kelly has devoted significant time giving back, serving on the Board of Directors at the American Advertising Federation, the Executive Committee and BOD of the AD Council and Chairman of the Advertising Hall of Fame. In 2007, he received the Barton Cummings Gold Medal, awarded to executives that make the most significant career-long contributions to the advertising industry. He is also a founder and board member of the Kelly Gang Charities, is on the Board of Councilors of the President Carter Center and is active in his community of Litchfield CT.