Peter Kelly has long been active in law, politics and business on national and international levels. He was a founder, Director and Treasurer of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and Chairman for both the Center for Democracy and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, two privately funded bipartisan foundations based in Washington, DC.  

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Previously, Mr. Kelly served as Treasurer and National Finance Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, of which he was a member for sixteen years. He was a senior political advisor to Jimmy Carter in 1980, Albert Gore, Jr., in 1988 and 2000 and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996.

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A member of the bars of Connecticut, New York, and the District of Columbia and the related Federal Courts, Mr. Kelly is Of Counsel to Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C., a law firm he founded in 1967 with offices in Hartford, New Haven, Middletown and Storrs, CT.  He is the former Chairman of The PBN Company, a strategic planning firm with offices in Moscow, Kiev, London and Washington. He has also served as Chairman of Black, Kelly, Scruggs and Healy, a Washington public affairs firm, and as Managing Director of Burson-Marsteller (Latin America).

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Mr. Kelly is a graduate of Georgetown University, magna cum laude and the Yale Law School, where he served as an Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He received honorary degrees (J.D. honoris causae) from Central Connecticut State University and St. Joseph University.