Michael J. Kelly
| Michael J. Kelly | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1957 (age 59–60) Chicago, IL |
| Residence | New York, NY |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
University of Wisconsin University of Illinois |
| Occupation | Publisher, Entertainment Weekly (1996-2000) Founder & CEO, American Town Network (2000-02) President, AOL Media Networks (2004-07) President & CEO, The Weather Channel Co (2009-12) Chairman, Unruly Media (2012-15) Chairman, ColSpace (2012-16) |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Spouse(s) | Martha Hall Kelly |
Michael J. "Mike" Kelly (born 1957) is an American entrepreneur and media executive. He is the co-founder and CEO of SGP and lead director at American Town Network. He was formerly the chairman of Unruly and Colspace. 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 and AOL.
Kelly was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. 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, the mayor of Chicago from 1933 to 1947.
Kelly attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison and later graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign with a bachelor of arts in political science.
After beginning his career at the Chicago Tribune in 1980, Kelly moved to Time Inc. in 1983, where he remained until 2000. While there, he managed the Southeast and New York sales offices for Fortune magazine, before joining the launch team of Entertainment Weekly in 1989. He served as the magazine's publisher from 1996 until 2000, and in that time was twice named Publisher of the Year.
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.
In 2002, two years after AOL and Time Warner merged, Kelly was named president of global marketing for Time Warner. He became the founding president of AOL Media Networks in 2004, where he was responsible for AOL's marketing and advertising. He left AOL in 2007. While at AOL, Kelly oversaw the company's Web advertising buying spree, including its June 2004 purchase of Advertising.com for $435 million, its first major acquisition since its merger with Time Warner. Following the acquisition, Advertising.com's 300 employees reported to Kelly. Kelly also oversaw AOL's partnership with Google, 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.
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