Former President Barack Obama is under fire for his decision to speak at an upcoming event in Napa Valley, California.
According to Politico, the former president will deliver remarks to an audience of CEOs brought together by Declan Kelly, former chairman and chief executive of the consulting firm Teneo, who resigned from that position after reportedly getting drunk and groping a number of women at a high-powered charity event in 2021.
“It’s disgusting to have a president who has championed women speak at an event hosted by someone with this type of track record of treating women,” a female former employee said, speaking on condition of anonymity, according to Politico.
Another anonymous former Teneo employee agreed.
“President Obama should not be in the business of rehabbing the reputation and accepting money from someone accused of groping multiple people at a charity event. Some red lines are not meant to be crossed,” the second former employee said, according to Politico.
According to a report at the time from the New York Post’s Page Six, the 2021 charity event was the VIP party that followed the Vax Live concert organized by the organization Global Citizen.
Vax Live billed itself as “a global broadcast special celebrating COVID-19 vaccines.” It was chaired by Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, and featured messages from the now-deceased Pope Francis and then-President Joe Biden.
“One source told Page Six that Kelly was extremely drunk and acted inappropriately with as many as six women at the party in front of other guests,” the column reported.
Kelly resigned from Teneo less than two months later, according to a CNBC report.
“Since the event two months ago Mr. Kelly immediately committed to sobriety, is undertaking ongoing counselling from healthcare professionals, and has temporarily reduced his work responsibilities,” a representative of Kelly told The Wall Street Journal at the time.
Meanwhile, Kelly’s connections to powerful figures in the Democratic Party go beyond Obama.
From 2009 through 2011, Kelly served as special economic envoy to Northern Ireland under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Likewise, a co-founder of Teneo, the company Kelly led, was Doug Band, a one-time counselor to former President Bill Clinton who was credited in a 2020 Vanity Fair as having “virtually invented Clinton’s postpresidential life.”
Now, Kelly serves as founder, chairman, and CEO of the investment company Consello. Senior management at the company includes former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
Consello organized the event where Obama will speak.
Hellbound and Down 