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Joe Kelly Aims To Motivate Peers To Affect Change In The State Legislature

By Foster Steinbeck

Joe Kelly Aims To Motivate Peers To Affect Change In The State Legislature

To Joe Kelly, the 150th district Republican candidate in the state legislature and long-time Greenwich community member, a big part of the problem with society’s current political landscape is both people and parties focus too much on their disagreements.

The solution? Taking what he’s already been doing to the state capitol — motivating others to work together by highlighting their commonalities.

“If you work together, then everyone’s pulling for each other. Democrat and Republican, it makes no difference. We want to do things that are going to better the state of Connecticut,” Kelly said.

“If we both, Democrats and Republicans, talk about the things we agree, strengthen those things we agree on, and then push forward on accomplishing the things we disagree on, we can approach them in a positive, meaningful way,” he added,

In his 22 years in Greenwich, Kelly has notably served as the coach of Greenwich High School’s star men’s rugby team, on the county’s Board of Education and as a volunteer firefighter. All of which, combined with his time in the private sector, will serve him well if elected, Kelly said.

Cultivated from his Wall Street career and multiple community involvements, Kelly said he wants to use his ability to motivate, paired with his blue-collar work ethic, to continue giving back to Greenwich and its communities.

I’m an uniter. I’m an inspirer. I’m a motivator … If I’m going to Hartford, I’m not going to go in there telling them what they’re doing wrong,” Kelly said. “I’m going to go to Hartford, try to understand how they look at things and try to talk about the things we have in common. And then once we have things in common, then we can change.”

Policy from past experience

To make Connecticut’s higher education institutions more desirable, Kelly said he’d like to encourage state universities to further reduce tuition for in-state and low-income students, as well as encourage better job placements programs.

Kelly also said he would strive to divert more state education funding to Greenwich’s public schools.

Kelly said his time serving on Greenwich’s Board of Education will help him advocate for Greenwich’s public schools. Kelly said he spent a lot of time on the Board of Education striving to get unanimous support for the board’s issues in the voting sessions. If elected, Kelly said he would continue to serve on the Board.

Rather than laying off teachers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kelly garnered support from fellow board members to use the school’s Cybersecurity operating funds to instead fund teacher salaries.

Kelly also wants to address the state’s unfunded pensions liabilities through stimulating economic growth. Connecticut’s pension system is critically underfunded, as it still is paying off assets from decades ago, forcing the state to channel more money to fulfilling its pension payments, leaving less money to fund other projects and initiatives.

To stimulate such growth, Kelly said he wants the state government to better take care of its existing businesses by reaching out and asking them what challenges they face.  Kelly said the state government should make contact with out-of-state businesses and incentivize them to operate in Connecticut. 

Kelly said he would like to leave the door open on specific policy points, as such businesses needs different types of policy support to thrive.

“I’m not saying I have the solution as far as what tax structure is necessary to remain competitive, but it certainly has to be addressed. Ignoring it is 100% not the answer,” Kelly said. “Having two businesses now and having other businesses in the state, not once did anyone ever contact me.”

Kelly currently serves as the CEO of Uranium Markets, Inc.,  a nuclear fuel brokerage company, and the President of Forestland Development, a real estate development company. Both companies are located in Greenwich. Kelly said he delegates the company’s day-to-day responsibilities to employees.

Kelly first got his business start out of college in 1985, working for R.M.J Securities as an assistant bond broker. He later became the company’s senior managing director. Before moving to Greenwich in 1998, Kelly worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, Rand Brokerage Firms and Securities and Liberty Brokerage Investment Corp.

Kelly said he learned to develop his ability to motivate people during his business years. During his time working in England at Liberty Brokerage Investment Corp. in the ‘90s, Kelly said the company struggled to break into the established market of selling European government bonds. 

While other firms’ employees were on lunch break, Kelly said he motivated his employees to work through their lunch breaks by letting them order whatever they wanted on the company tab. Kelly said the shift helped the company grow greatly.

“I found that I became more valuable to the company helping others to be more productive, by making them feel good about themselves,” Kelly said. “My skill became my ability to motivate others, which is probably the thing I learned most in my professional career. And that’s the thing I’m using the most in my, in my life as a volunteer.”

Kelly started coaching Greenwich High School’s Men’s Rugby Team in 2010. For the past six seasons acting as the coach, the team was invited to compete in the Boy’s High School Rugby National Championships

Kelly attributed the program’s success to the players’ and staffs’ positive attitude, motivation and the town’s support of the program.

Throughout his time coaching Rugby, from 2010 to 2019, Kelly said the joy of motivating the athletes to work together to accomplish a shared goal is his favorite aspect of coaching. 

“It was always fun when the parents would say ‘hey, thank you for coaching my kids’ and I turn around and say ‘hey, thank you for letting me coach your kids,’” Kelly said. “Because I got twice if not three times as much out of the experience of coaching your kids that you got by being coached.”

Zane Khader, who played on the GHS’s Men’s Rugby team until his graduation in 2020, said he has a tremendous amount of respect for Kelly.

Khader recounted one of the team’s group huddles during a Spring 2019 practice — which happened after every practice’s warm-ups — where Kelly asked Khader, who was fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, to explain the practice to him and the team.

“You don’t have a lot of Muslim kids going through that program in this town, unfortunately. And so, he took it upon himself to educate himself, but then also educate the team, which distinguished him because not many coaches will do that,” Khader said. “As a result, it created a deeper team connection because everyone was almost experiencing what I was experiencing vicariously because they understood it.”

Blue-collar work ethic

Kelly was born in 1963 in Queens, NYC in a financially-struggling, blue-collar working family. After losing his father to alcoholism in 1975, Kelly, the second of 6 kids, began working to support his family while attending middle school.

Kelly later attended Iona College in 1981 and graduated with a degree in business administration, working as a janitor in between classes and as a bartender six nights a week.

Kelly first met Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo when he was a customer of one of Camillo’s recycling businesses. Remaining friends since, the men campaigned together last year as Kelly vied for a spot on the Board of Education and Camillo the first selectman’s office.  

“He’s very solutions-oriented. He’s a very positive person. If there’s a problem, he’s not one to throw his hands up in the air and say ‘Oh that’s it, you can do anything about it.’ He’ll always look for a way to do it. That’s why he’s been very successful.”

Looking back on his professional career and volunteer commitments, Kelly said he loves taking responsibility, whether for a high school sports team or the county’s local policy. 

Now, he’s aiming to extend his responsibilities to encompass his constituents’ concerns and the state’s policies.

[Taking responsibility] is something that came naturally to me because I did it at a very young age,” Kelly said. As I went into the workforce after college and after the life lesson I had of understanding that one has to work a lot, I went on throughout my career in Wall Street. I found  it to be easier than I thought it was going to be, because I just outworked everybody, and I’ve always done that for my entire career.

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