Areas of Expertise:
Ken Gude is an experienced organizational leader and strategic adviser who has worked in high-level politics, policy and sport in both the United States and the United Kingdom. With his diverse blend of expertise, from international relations and political messaging to sport investment strategy and club management, all in organizations in the public eye, Ken is well-positioned to advise clients across multiple sectors and continents as a senior director based in APCO’s London office.
We overestimate what we can accomplish in a day, but radically underestimate what we can accomplish in a year or five years.
– Bill Gates
Prior to joining APCO, Ken moved with his family from Washington, D.C., to South Wales in 2023 to take on the role of chief of staff and head of strategy at Swansea City AFC. At Swansea, Ken led the non-football components of the club, guiding its financial, commercial and operational strategies, ultimately taking on the position of executive director. In this role, he liaised with the club’s key stakeholders, including investors and key sponsors, league officials and local and national political figures. Ken also co-founded and served on the board of directors of the DC United Foundation and, earlier in his career, served in commercial roles with the NFL franchise in Washington, D.C., now known as the Commanders.
Before making the transition into sport, Ken worked for more than two decades in political and policy organizations in Washington, D.C. Ken spent 15 years at the Center for American Progress, joining before it formally launched and rising to chief of staff. His subject matter expertise is foreign and security policy and political messaging, and he advised every Democratic presidential nominee in those areas from 2004 to 2020.
Ken began his career in politics at the Labour Party in 1995, a particularly exciting time in British politics during the rise of New Labour, where he worked in the campaigns and elections directorate and as a policy officer on the anti-rail privatization campaign. Ken has also worked at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for National Security Studies in Washington, and the Institute for Public Policy Research in London.
Ken played golf in college in the United States at the College of Wooster in Ohio, where he competed in two national championships and won multiple tournaments. He remains an avid golfer and currently lives in Swansea with his wife and two boys.