the kenney group
Kelly McAleer
Kelly joined The Kenney Group in July 2020 as lead Account Executive in Utah.
Kelly is a Utah native and is an accomplished government affairs and advocacy professional with extensive experience in the healthcare, life sciences, high-tech and venture capital industries. Her perspectives come from her diverse experience working as a legislative staff for a US Senator; political appointee in the federal government; in-house lobbyist for a Fortune 50 health care company; a mature tech company and as a leader at a national and state-level trade association.
Kelly spent over 30 years working in Washington, DC in public and private sector roles doing legislative, government affairs and advocacy work. She spent the first part of her career working for US Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the Assistant Secretary of Legislation at the Department of Health and Human Services, ten years at Baxter Healthcare Corporation as Director of Government Affairs. She then spent ten years at the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) as Vice President of Government Affairs where she one of the principal lobbyists and created a new focus on health care policy for NVCA to raise the visibility of life science investors to congressional leaders, administration officials and patient groups on the role critical venture capital plays in medical innovation.
She moved back to her Utah roots in 2015 and spent three years as President and CEO of BioUtah, the state trade association representing Utah’s life sciences industry where she led federal and state legislative and advocacy efforts and was the industry liaison between federal, local and state government officials, patient advocacy groups, universities and other industry organizations. Kelly built strong strategic relationships and partnerships important to the growth and success of Utah’s life sciences industry. Prior to joining The Kenney Group, Kelly was Senior Director for Government Affairs at Ancestry where she defined and executed a comprehensive federal and state government affairs strategy focused on policy development, relationship and coalition building, lobbying and positioning Ancestry as a policy leader for the direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry.