Kris Balderston is General Manager of the FleishmanHillard Washington, D.C. office. His 30 year career in Washington includes leadership positions dealing with state, federal, and international public affairs.
Most recently, Mr. Balderston served as Special Representative for Global Partnerships under Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. In that position he helped to create the Global Partnership Initiative and launched a number of innovative public-private partnerships to address global problems. Mr. Balderston specialized in forming market-driven collaborations involving private companies, NGOs, and governments that achieved success by creatively leveraging the interests of multiple organizations toward a common goal. Under his leadership, the Global Partnership Initiative brokered alliances and relationships with more than 300 partners and secured more than $350 million in capital from private investors, investment banks, NGOs foundations, and governments around the world to fund early stage projects.
Mr. Balderston also served as Senator Clinton’s first Legislative Director and then as Deputy Chief of Staff during her term as Senator from New York. He provided advice and counsel on a wide array of political and policy matters during the Senator’s eight years in office. He also promoted economic development in New York State, initiating and implementing dozens of high impact public-private projects.
Before joining Senator Clinton, Mr. Balderston served President Bill Clinton in the White House as the Deputy Secretary of the Cabinet and the Deputy Assistant to the President where he acted as liaison between the White House and the Cabinet on a wide array of policy matters. He was also responsible for developing multi-agency solutions to immediate problems and coordinating communication between the policy councils and the Cabinet agencies.
Mr. Balderston’s Senate experience also included a stint as Senior Policy Advisor to Majority Leader George Mitchell. And, he served as Deputy Chief of State at the Labor Department for Secretary Robert Reich.
At the state level, Mr. Balderston worked for the National Governors’ Association in the 1980’s and ran the Massachusetts State Office in Washington on behalf of Governor Michael Dukakis.
Mr. Balderston holds his BA degree in political science from LeMoyne College and his MA degree in government from Georgetown University.