Tom Kelley
Managing Partner

As Managing Partner of Concept Branding Group (since 1991), Tom Kelley has advised, counseled and provided valuable insight to management of corporate, trade association, and non-profit clients in all areas of strategic marketing, branding, and external affairs outreach. Tom has worked to expand consumer brands like Target Corporation, Nabisco, Pepsi; associations like the International Hotel & Restaurant Association, National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, Bay Area Council; to regional businesses like BlackWater Distilling Company, Taco Cabana Restaurants, Weathervane Seafood Restaurants, and Brandon Green & Associates Real Estate.

Kelley has a unique talent for bringing stakeholders together, forming new alliances that are win-win situations for all. Knowing how to develop and deliver clear and consistent marketing messages has won Kelley praise from business leaders from coast to coast. His rolodex is a virtual “who’s who” of business and civic leaders nationwide.

For almost five years, he headed the political affairs department at the National Restaurant Association in Washington, D.C. He officially represented the Association at legislative, political, and supplier events in Washington and across the country and was a registered Congressional lobbyist. He was instrumental in guiding the volunteer leaders of the Association’s political action and education committees to set record levels of brand awareness and fundraising achievement during his tenure. He served as Staff Advisor to two board-level committees, responsible for administrative bylaws and internal budgets and forecasts. He assembled a leadership committee and created a totally new branded program to raise substantial new revenue and increase Association name identification across the country.

Also in Washington, DC, Kelley served as Special Assistant to U. S. Congressman Bill Boner (TN), concentrating on U. S. travel & tourism promotion and media and press relations; and as Senior Staff Director at the American Insurance Association, where he headed an effort to increase the property-casualty group’s political image and strength.

Kelley also served as Chief Company Spokesman and head of public relations at Target Corporation's 260-store Mervyn’s division; as Vice President of Marketing then Executive Vice President of Los Angeles-based American Restaurant Services, Inc., a 15-unit restaurant, franchise, real estate, and insurance trust holding company in Los Angeles.

He received his Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and Economics from Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Northfield Mount Hermon School, Northfield, Massachusetts (1979) and has served as Vice Chairman of the school’s Annual Fund. He has been an active member of the American Society of Association Executives and was a featured speaker on various Society panels. Kelley's accomplishments have been featured in PACs and Lobbies magazine and in the National Journal. He frequently writes on issues involving the tourism and hospitality industry in Nation’s Restaurant News and has been quoted and interviewed for various regional business journals and BusinessWeek on retail branding and marketing trends.