Kelly Johnston retired from Campbell in October 2018 after a 16-year career as vice president of government affairs at Campbell Soup Company.

Previously, Kelly spent nearly 25 years in Washington, D.C., in several leadership positions within the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, politics, and the trade association world.  He was Executive Vice President for Government Affairs and Communications at the National Food Processors’ Association (NFPA), serving as the organization’s chief government affairs and communications officer for nearly 6 years.

From 1995 to 1997, he was the Secretary of the U.S. Senate and its chief legislative, financial, and administrative officer. Kelly has also served as Staff Director of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs in the U.S. Department of Transportation, and chief of staff or press secretary to three Members of Congress. He began his career as a newspaper reporter and editor in his native Oklahoma.

Kelly is co-chair of the Stubblefield Institute for Civil Political Communication at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, WV. He also serves on the Board of Regents for The Fund for American Studies, Washington, DC’s most extensive college internship program. He provides pro bono advice and counsel to the Sunshine Nut Company and Foundation, a cashew-growing and faith-based processing company in Mozambique. He’s a former chair of the Canadian American Business Council.

Kelly earned his B.A. in Communications in 1976 from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, where he was named to the Alumni Hall of Fame.  He attended Georgetown University’s Graduate School of Demography in Washington, D.C.  He has guest lectured on politics, government, lobbying, and communications at several universities, including Yale University, the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, George Washington University, Shepherd University, and Burlington County College in New Jersey.

He’s also the author of a blog on Substack, “Against the Grain,” which explores the intersection of history, politics, and public policy. He’s a frequent guest on podcasts and radio shows about the US Senate.

He and his wife, Adrienne, live in western Loudoun County, Virginia.  They have two sons and a grandson.