Jim Kelly

Jim Kelly, MV’s executive vice president of business development, works with MV’s executive team to develop and execute strategic initiatives focused on the company’s growth and sustainability.  Throughout his career, Mr. Kelly has demonstrated a unique combination of business acumen and drive to serve others that results in independence, self-sufficiency, and the continued success of those in need.  

An accomplished leader with a rich history in non-profit management and restoring financial health, Kelly joined MV in 2010 as a consultant while completing his MBA at the University of California, Davis.  Also serving as a private equity intern for the California Public Employee Retirement System in Sacramento, Calif., Mr. Kelly analyzed the benefits of mezzanine debt funds for the CalPERS private equity group and evaluated fund proposals. 

From 2007 through 2008, Kelly served as the vice president of operations of Freedom from Hunger, an international nonprofit organization that combines financial literacy and health education to aid poverty-stricken women in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.  Leading a team of 12 professionals, Kelly developed financial systems to support data-based decision making by the agency’s executive and management teams. This approach greatly reduced risk, and enabled responsible and informed action in the financial downturn.

Prior to his post as vice president, Kelly spent six years as a Regional Director for the International Catholic Migration Commission, in Beirut, Lebanon.  Establishing operations in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, he initiated and developed the organization’s Middle East operating unit that ultimately served more than 20,000 migrants with much-needed health care, social services and legal protection. Kelly’s work with independent partner organizations and government departments led to program growth in excess of $12 million.

While serving as a country director at Catholic Relief Services in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995 through 1999), Kelly aided in the recovery of war-torn areas, leading a team of more than 120 who enabled more than 5,000 families to return to their pre-war residences. Leading the strategic plan to develop responsive programs and diversify revenue streams, Kelly’s work realized annual growth of 400 percent, from $4 million to more than $16 million.

In Haiti as a crisis project manager, Kelly worked to assist those in need during an international embargo between 1993 and 1995. He opened two office locations and a warehouse location to provide health, social and agricultural support.

Among his numerous international assignments, Mr. Kelly has consulted in areas of financial and personnel management, change management and executive leadership in Cambodia, Indonesia/East Timor, Kosovo, Albania, Guinea, and India.  Kelly is a graduate of Harvard University, and has an MBA from the University of California Davis.  He is fluent in French and Haitian Creole.