The ACG Team
After more than four decades in public service, politics and the private sector, Kris Balderston joined ACG Advocacy as a Strategic Partner in 2021.
Kris specializes in creating uncommon alliances from the public and private sectors together to create workable solutions for solving pressing domestic and global challenges. He was General Manager of Fleishman Hillard’s Washington, DC office, and advised a wide array of corporate, government, philanthropic, and nonprofit clients worldwide as President of FH’s Global Public Affairs.
Prior to his private sector tenure, Kris was tapped by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to create the State Department’s first Office of Global Partnership Initiatives. As the Secretary’s Special Representative, he brokered relationships with more than 300 partners, corporations, nonprofit organizations and foundations worldwide on a wide array of issues.
Before the State Department, Kris helped New York Senator Hillary Clinton set up and organize her Senate office, and served as her first Legislative Director. He later became the Deputy Chief of Staff and helped shape the Senator’s policy agenda.
Kris went to Capitol Hill after eight years serving in the Clinton Administration, first at the Department of Labor and then to the White House as the Deputy Assistant to the President for Cabinet Affairs.
Kris holds an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Political Science from LeMoyne College. He was a founding advisor and currently the national political director for Change Research, a innovative and affordable on-line polling firm. Kris also serves on several boards, including Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (Founding Member of the Advisory Council) and is an Honorary Professor of Law at Swansea University’s School of Law.