Michael J. "Mike" Kelly (born 1957) is an American entrepreneur and media executive. He is the co-founder and CEO of KNV, a digital media investment and advisory firm. Prior to that, he was the president and CEO of The Weather Channel Companies, president of AOL Media Networks, and also held various executive positions at

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

and AOL. Kelly is not to be confused with J. Michael Kelly, who was CFO of AOL when it was a standalone company, then CFO of AOL Time Warner after the merger, COO of the AOL division within AOL Time Warner (since renamed Time Warner), and then CEO of AOL International.

Early life and education

Kelly was born and raised in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

."Michael J. Kelly Named President/CEO of The Weather Channel Companies,"
The Weather Company, July 20, 2009. His father, also named Michael J. Kelly, was a longtime advertising executive in Chicago and New York, and his great uncle was

Edward Joseph Kelly Edward Joseph Kelly (May 1, 1876October 20, 1950) was an American politician who served as the 46th Mayor of Chicago from April 17, 1933, until April 15, 1947. Prior to being mayor of Chicago, Kelly served as chief engineer of the Chicago Sani ...

, the mayor of Chicago from 1933 to 1947. Kelly attended the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

and later graduated from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

with a bachelor of arts in political science.Chris Ariens
"Michael J. Kelly Named CEO of The Weather Channel,"
'' Adweek'', July 20, 2009.

Career

Time Inc. and American Town Network (1980-2002)

After beginning his career at the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' in 1980, Kelly moved to

Time Inc. Time Inc. (also referred to as Time & Life, Inc. later on, after their two onetime flagship magazine publications) was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New ...

in 1983, where he remained until 2000. While there, he managed the Southeast and New York sales offices for ''

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fate * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (19 ...

'' magazine, before joining the launch team of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' in 1989. He served as the magazine's publisher from 1996 until 2000,Louise Story
"Moving Downtown: AOL Seeks New Image,"
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', September 18, 2007.Steve Cohn
"Michael J. Kelly (ex-Time Inc.) Is Out as Weather Channel CEO,"
Min Online, January 25, 2012. and was twice named Publisher of the Year.Bill Carter
"A New Chief Executive at the Weather Channel,"
''New York Times'', July 20, 2009. In 2000, Kelly founded American Town Network, serving as CEO of the locally focused, community-based digital platform until 2002. By 2009, American Town Network had become the largest "hyper-local" platform in the US.

Time Warner and AOL (2002-07)

In 2002, two years after

AOL AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...

and

merged, Kelly was named president of global marketing for Time Warner.Kevin Kingsbury
"Weather Channel Taps Former AOL Executive, Michael Kelly, as CEO,"
''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', July 20, 2009. He became the founding president of AOL Media Networks in 2004, responsible for AOL's marketing and advertising. While at AOL, Kelly oversaw the company's Web advertising buying spree,Dan Frommer
"Ex-AOL Media Boss Mike Kelly Hired As Weather Channel CEO,"
''Business Insider'', July 21, 2009. including its June 2004 purchase of

Advertising.com AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...

for $435 million. He also oversaw AOL's partnership with

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

,Mike Kelly
VB Profiles. Accessed September 9, 2016. and the company's acquisition of mobile ad firm Third Screen Media. While he was at AOL, advertising and commerce revenue more than tripled, to over $2.2 billion. He left AOL in 2007.

The Weather Channel (2009-12)

On July 20, 2009, shortly after

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel ...

was sold by

Landmark Communications Landmark Media Enterprises, LLC (a spinoff of Landmark Communications, Inc.) is a privately held technology company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia. History The ''Norfolk Landmark'' was established in 1873. It had various editors. K. C. Murray ...

NBC Universal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 ...

and private equity firms

Bain Capital Bain Capital, LP is an American Investment company, private investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, with around $185 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, p ...

and

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman ...

for $3.5 billion, Kelly was named president and CEO of The Weather Channel Companies (TWCC). He was responsible for the strategic direction and operations of The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel Interactive, weather.com and The Weather Channel Mobile, Weather Services International and Enterprise Electronics Corporation. Under Kelly, TWCC saw huge growth in its digital media business, specifically involving its mobile apps and data.Staci D. Kramer
"David Kenny Replacing Mike Kelly As CEO Of The Weather Channel Companies,"

Gigaom Gigaom is a technology-focused analyst firm and media company. It was founded by Om Malik in San Francisco, California. In March 2015, it was shut down and in June 2015, its website and content were acquired by Knowingly and relaunched. History ...

, January 24, 2012. This growth would lead to

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

's 2015 purchase of The Weather Company's digital division for an undisclosed sum. Kelly also oversaw the addition of taped reality shows and documentaries, which were not always directly connected to weather. This change improved the channel's ratings, but was said to alienate some fans who preferred strictly weather-related programming. Kelly left TWCC in 2012, becoming a special advisor to TWCC and Bain Capital.

Other work

Since 2004, Kelly has served as a board member of The Kelly Gang, a media-centric group of executives who have raised money for philanthropic purposes through annual

St. Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (), is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Chri ...

celebrations. From 2007 to 2009, he was an advisor to media-focused private equity fund

Veronis Suhler Stevenson Veronis Suhler Stevenson, known by its initials, VSS, is a private investment firm that invests in the information, business services, healthcare IT, education, media and marketing industries in North America and Europe. Since 1987, VSS has mana ...

. He also served on the board of numerous digital media companies, including Eyeblaster, VisibleWorld, ContextWeb and American Town Network. He is on the board of directors of the

American Advertising Federation The American Advertising Federation (AAF) is the nation's oldest national advertising industry trade association. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AAF has 15 district operations, each located in and representing a different region of the na ...

, where he twice chaired the

Advertising Hall of Fame The Advertising Hall of Fame, operated by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), began in 1948 as a result of a proposal by the New York Ad Club and its president, Andrew Haire, to the Advertising Federation of America, the predecessor organiza ...

, and has previously served on the

Ad Council The Advertising Council, commonly known as Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements or PSAs on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-gover ...

. Since 2011, he has sat on the board of councilors at the

Carter Center The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. He and his wife Rosalynn Carter partnered with Emory University after his defeat in the 1980 United States presidential ele ...

in Atlanta. In 2012, Kelly was named chairman of cloud-based media planning software company ColSpace, becoming lead investor in 2014. On May 19, 2016, Colspace was acquired by Mediaocean (owned by

Vista Equity Partners Vista Equity Partners Management, LLC is an American private equity firm that invests in software, data, and technology-enabled businesses. It is one of the largest private equity firms in the world, managing over $100 billion in assets. Vista Eq ...

). Also in 2012, Kelly joined London-based media advertising company Unruly Media as non-executive lead director, later being named chairman. On September 16, 2015, it was announced that Unruly would be purchased by

News Corp The second and current incarnation of News Corporation, doing business as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed on ...

for $176 million.

Personal life

Kelly's wife, Martha Hall Kelly, is a writer whose debut novel, ''Lilac Girls'', was published by

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...

in 2016.Michael Callahan
"Shadows of War,"
''

'', May 27, 2016.

References

External links

Michael J. Kelly
at Bloomberg.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Michael J 1957 births University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Businesspeople from New York City The Weather Channel people AOL people Living people University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Businesspeople from Chicago American chief executives in the mass media industry Warner Bros. Discovery people American magazine publishers (people) American mass media company founders