PR guru Kelly calls drunken incident ‘a huge wake-up call’

The chairman of Teneo has temporarily reduced some of his responsibilities at the firm while he undergoes health-related counselling

Declan Kelly has said that he “will never drink again” following an alcohol-fuelled incident at the Vax Live charity event. Picture: Getty

Declan Kelly, the chair of global public relations firm Teneo, has described a drunken incident that led to his leaving the board of a global charity as “a huge wake-up call”.

Kelly apologised to Teneo staff in an email last week when, in an unfortunate case of the PR person becoming the story, details emerged of him becoming inebriated and behaving inappropriately towards a number of people at a prestigious cocktail party in the US.