Peter Kellner

Biography

Peter Kellner CBE is a political analyst, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, and former president of the pioneering online survey research company YouGov.

He was chairman of YouGov from 2001 to 2007 and president from 2007 to 2016. He was named Chairman of the Year in the 2006 Quoted Companies Alliance awards.

He has written for a variety of newspapers and magazines, including the Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Observer, Evening Standard, New Statesman, and Prospect. He has also been a regular contributor to Newsnight (BBC2), A Week in Politics (Channel Four), Analysis (Radio Four) and BBC TV election-night results programmes. He has written and contributed to a variety of books and leaflets about politics, elections, and public affairs. He was awarded Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards in 1978.

Kellner has also been a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and a distinguished visiting fellow at the Policy Studies Institute, London. He has served as a member of committees set up by the Economic and Social Research Council to commission research into elections and social exclusion. He received a Special Recognition Award from the Political Studies Association in 2011.

He has served as a trustee with various charities, including Action on Smoking and Health, the National Literacy Trust, the Hansard Society, UpRising (a mentoring charity), and the National Institute for Economic and Social Research. He has also chaired the Royal Commonwealth Society (2009-2013) and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (2016-2019). He was awarded his CBE in the 2023 New Year honours list for his services to charity.

Before joining YouGov, he acted as a consultant on public opinion research to a number of organisations, including the Bank of England, Corporation of London, Foreign Office, National Westminster Bank, and Trades Union Congress.