Peter Kelley

Peter Kelley has extensive experience in designing and executing strategic campaigns for cleantech companies and leading energy and environmental non-profits. He overhauled and ran communications for the American wind energy industry for nearly eight years as Vice President for Public Affairs at the American Wind Energy Association, branding wind energy as “red-white-and-blue, not just green.”

Peter was a founding member of RenewComm, and also led Kelley Campaigns to serve non-profit clients. Under his leadership, the combined firm grew to a staff of up to 10 in Washington, D.C., plus a network of senior consultants in New York, Los Angeles, and Burlington, Vermont.

Before that, Peter was the top communications staffer for three U.S. national environmental groups: the League of Conservation Voters, National Environmental Trust (now part of Pew Charitable Trusts), and American Rivers. As a senior account executive at Fenton Communications, he led the PR firm in media placements. He helped create the category of non-profit news services, as the original director of the National Security News Service and later the Natural Resources News Service.

He began his career as a journalist, covering national politics for Newhouse Newspapers in Washington, D.C. after winning three statewide awards for investigative reporting for the state capital daily newspaper in Pennsylvania, and working for a newspaper chain in Michigan. He was a Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow and taught a masters-level course in “Public Communications Management” at American University. He was communications coach for the University of Maryland’s winning team in the international Solar Decathlon. Peter holds a Bachelor’s in Government from Harvard University. In his spare time he is a devoted hiker, backcountry skier, and occasionally rescues stray cats.