Kahlil Byrd
| Kahlil Byrd | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kahlil Julian Byrd |
| Residence | New York, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
Morehouse College, B.A. Harvard Kennedy School, MPA |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Haacke Byrd (2011–present) |
Kahlil Julian Byrd is the founder and CEO of the FPPCO | Invest America, a seed fund focused on financing political entrepreneurs. He formerly served as president of StudentsFirst, a political advocacy group focused on education reform. He served less than a year in that role, leaving in July 2013.
Prior to that he served as CEO of Americans Elect. During the 2012 presidential election cycle, Americans Elect was a national organization that unsuccessfully sought to nominate and elect a third-party candidate for president by attempting to put a bipartisan presidential ticket on the ballot in all 50 states.
Byrd holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Morehouse College, and a Master of Arts from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Byrd started his career as a journalist, working for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C.
He began his political career as spokesman and communications director for Deval Patrick's 2006 campaign for governor. He left the campaign in April 2006 to "return to business interests". In 2007, Byrd joined the Patrick administration as Director of Gubernatorial Appointments.
Byrd was also a Term Member and an International Affairs Fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.
Byrd is the founder and CEO of Forward Progress in Politics (FPPCO).
From 2009 through the 2012 election cycle, Byrd was chief executive of Americans Elect, a national organization that aimed to reshape the United States presidential primary system and place a bipartisan presidential ticket on all 50 state ballots. During his tenure, the organization raised over US$40 million and established a fully functioning start-up with over 150 paid staff, 4,000 contractors and 3,000 volunteers nationwide. Over two years, Americans Elect had 3.5 million unique visitors to its website and acquired more than 450,000 members. No candidate emerged for president, and the organization made the decision in the spring of 2012 to suspend the online convention.
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