Kelly
Williamson

Kelly Williamson is a strategic advisor and an entrepreneur at heart. As President of APCO’s North America region and a member of APCO’s Global Leadership Team, she has been instrumental in driving innovation and growth across the firm. Kelly is accustomed to exploring new territory and capturing opportunities—from creating APCO’s global key client initiative, to founding the Raleigh presence and helping grow it into a flourishing business, to regularly galvanizing new and creative ideas from around the world. She challenges herself, her clients and her managers to think bigger and act more boldly, making her a force of nature who consistently challenges the status quo.

With over 25 years of experience in strategic advisory, corporate risk and reputation management, Kelly helps C-Suite executives understand the environment in which they operate and provides real-time advice as they navigate employee, investor, customer and political pressures. Her expertise includes investor activism, enabling license to operate, bolstering reputation and creating stakeholder value, particularly in regulated industries. She has advised clients through complex challenges such as crisis recovery, market expansion and activist investor campaigns, working for many of the top Fortune 100 companies.

Her dedication to improving APCO’s culture and infrastructure is laudable. After beginning her APCO career as an intern in 1999, Kelly now helps global companies transform their business and prepare for what’s next.

Kelly’s tenure features career highlights across diverse industry sectors and regions. She’s a specialist in issues and corporate reputation, particularly for regulated industries. She built and initially led APCO’s key client initiative that trains colleagues globally on how to provide exceptional client service.

In recent years, Kelly has been honored several times for her significant career accomplishments. She was named an Industry Game Changer 2023 by Ragan Communications. She was also named a Champion in the 2018 PRWeek Hall of Femme and was named a 2018 Top Woman in PR by PR News.

Kelly is on the board of advisors at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in the Media and Journalism School as well as the board of the Institute for Public Relations. Prior to joining APCO, she served as a financial management consultant for the Principal Financial Group. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in communication with a concentration in public relations and business from James Madison University.