Education

• B.S. St. John’s University (1978)
• MBA University of Michigan with distinction (1983)
• U.S. House of Representatives (2001-2007)
• Presidential appointee to Advisory Committee of Trade Policy and Negotiation (under both Presidents Bush and Obama 2007-2010)

Experience

As Chief Executive Officer of Chartwell Strategic Advisors LLC and Senior Strategic Advisor for Parker Rosen LLC, Mark Kennedy applies experience at the lowest and highest levels of both business and government together with insights gain from extensive global engagement to help clients, graduate students and audiences around the world find their path to success in an increasingly globalized and competitive world.

In business, Mark helped Pillsbury purchase Häagen Dazs and expand globally, served as a Fortune 100 senior executive (Macy’s) and worked as Global Retail Business Development Lead for Accenture, a global management consulting firm. Kennedy has managed essentially every function in a business, but his heritage is in finance. Institutional Investor profiled Kennedy in an article headlined as America's Top CFO's.

Mark represented Minnesota in the United States House of Representatives for three terms (2001-07). Mark also served as a Presidential appointee to the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiation under both Presidents Bush and Obama.

Mark's track record of building bridges for mutual benefit includes partnering in Congress with twenty Democrats to lead legislation (including with President Obama’s former chief of staff) and having more than half the Democrats in the U.S. House co-sponsor bills he introduced.

Mark has long championed expanding prosperity through open trade and free markets. Mark was the deciding vote in giving the President Trade Promotion Authority and in passing the Central America Free Trade Agreement.

In Congress, Mark supported tax relief for hard-working families which sparked an economic revival and created millions of jobs. Kennedy was the deciding vote for legislation to give consumers more control of their own health care and was also the deciding vote on a bill to control unfunded entitlement spending. Mark was the prime author of a line item veto, an advocate for a balanced budget amendment and one of the few who consistently supported cutting wasteful earmarks.

Mark has founded or co-founded three lecture series – the Minnesota Rough Riders, the Frontiers of Freedom Lecture Series at St. John’s University and the Economic Club of Minnesota.

A graduate of St. John’s University, Mark began his career as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and received a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) with distinction from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Mark and Debbie, his wife of 30 years, have four young adult children and when not traveling reside in Watertown, Minnesota.

Accolades:

"Kennedy doesn't ignore the elephant in the room; to the contrary, he looks it straight in the eye" John King – CNN News

"Bold and smart" Fred Barnes – FOX News

Note: Mark Kennedy is neither a lawyer nor a lobbyist. Kennedy engages only with clients and matters consistent with the interests of the United States.