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 bringing unlikely partners 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, D.C. office, and advised a wide array of corporate, government 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 coming to State, 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 as the Deputy Assistant to the President for Cabinet Affairs.
At ACG Advocacy, Kris will continue to draw on his network of influencers and years of global and national experience to help develop and drive solutions around environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.
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 new innovative and affordable polling firm. Kris also serves on several boards, including: Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (Founding Member of the Advisory Council); the Stimson Center Board of Directors; and is an Honorary Professor of Law at Swansea University’s Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law. Kris has two adult daughters and lives in Alexandria, VA, with his wife Patti Reilly.
