Bill Novelli exits Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund

 The Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund announced that Bill Novelli is stepping down as chair of the Board of Directors after 30 years in leadership positions at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund. He will be succeeded by Melissa A. Schulman, Senior Vice President for Government and Public Affairs at CVS Health.

Novelli in 1996, with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, founded the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund. He served as president of the two organizations until December 1999, when Matthew L. Myers succeeded him. Novelli subsequently chaired the two Boards until 2025.  He has since chaired the Board of the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund. Christopher Conley now chairs the board of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

According to a release, The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund are leading advocacy organizations working to reduce tobacco use and its deadly consequences in the United States and around the world.  

In addition to his leadership roles at Tobacco-Free Kids, Novelli is an emeritus professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where he founded the Business for Impact Center and oversaw the program for more than a decade.

Novelli co-founded and co-chairs the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC, a national alliance to reform serious illness/end-of-life care in the U.S.

Previously, he was CEO of AARP, Executive Vice President of CARE, and co-founder and president of Porter Novelli, a global public relations firm that is now part of Omnicom.