John Kelly joined Brakeley in 1990 and became Managing Director in 1991.  He is currently President of Brakeley Ltd based in London.

Before joining Brakeley, Mr. Kelly headed Regent's College, London.  Earlier, he served as Bursar of Bedford College, University of London where he was one of the first people to introduce American fundraising approaches into a British university.  Other administrative positions in higher education were with the London School of Economics and the University of Glasgow.  For four years Mr. Kelly worked as a management consultant for a consortium of universities in the north-west of England and in Wales.

Born in Wimbledon, Mr. Kelly was brought up in Yorkshire and was educated at Mount St Mary's College in Derbyshire.  He studied at Ushaw College, Durham and then at Sheffield University from which he graduated as a Bachelor of Laws.  He is a Master of Arts of the University of London in United States Studies and also earned the Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance.

Throughout his professional life, Mr. Kelly has been particularly successful in introducing appropriate innovative practices to the institutions he has served, and for over thirty years has been actively involved in fundraising.  He has extensive professional contacts in the US, Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. 

Mr. Kelly was the editor and principal author of the UK handbook Boosting University Income, first published in 1984, has written a number of articles on fundraising for professional journals, and lectures regularly on fundraising.  From 1998 to 2001 he was Chairman of EUConsult, the European Association of Consultants to and about Not-for-Profit Organisations. Mr Kelly is a member of the Council of the University of Sheffield and has served for many years on the Executive Committee of the Convocation of graduates of the University. He is a Board member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), headquartered in Virginia (USA), and is Chairman of the Association of Fundraising Consultants in the UK (AFC).

Mr. Kelly has provided direct consultancy services to a range of Brakeley clients including: Chalmers University of Technology (Göteborg), Kræftens Bekæmpelse (cancer charity) (Copenhagen), Alliance for Global Sustainability (Japan, Switzerland, USA and Sweden), l’Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium), the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam), the International Rice Research Institute (Philippines), York Minster, Marie Curie Cancer Care (London), Hiroshima International School (Hiroshima), Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (Netherlands), the University of Glasgow (Scotland), Amnesty International, Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), Piteå School of Music (Sweden), Harvard Law School, Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), the National Library of Scotland (Edinburgh), the National Museums of Liverpool (UK), the Palestinian Museum (Palestine), Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, International College (Beirut) and Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).