KSE veterans Kevin Ellis and Bryan Mills form new firm

After long careers at previous firms, Kevin Ellis and Bryan Mills have formed an eponymously named public affairs firm based in Montpelier and Boston. They intend to offer new approaches under the public affairs umbrella, including public relations, state government affairs, corporate and non-profit strategy, crisis management, land-use projects and media training. It is a new, fast-moving, low-overhead approach that we think clients will appreciate.
The new firm, Ellis Mills, springs from their shared belief in the value and importance of responsive, high-quality strategic counsel for companies and non-profits in a rapidly changing world dominated by technical and political change. Like it or not, clients of all kinds must talk to government and vice versa. When that conversation is clear and constructive, everybody wins.
Mills worked for the venerable Kimbell Sherman Ellis (KSE) in the late 1990s, where he met and worked with Ellis, a partner at the firm. He went on to do consulting and advocacy work on controversial land-use projects at Saint Consulting, where he worked on projects in more than 40 states and Canada out of Saint’s Boston, San Francisco and Chicago offices.
Ellis spent 22 years at KSE in the middle of a changing landscape in state government affairs. He helped lead the march to marriage equality in Vermont and saw KSE’s business model transition from a small lobbying shop to a multi-state, national government affairs and communications firm. He left KSE in 2013. He previously worked at the Burlington Free Press as a State House reporter.
Kevin Ellis | Partner’
An award-winning former journalist, Kevin Ellis provides strategic counsel to companies and nonprofits nationwide in message development, crisis management, PR and social media.’
Kevin co-founded Ellis Mills after 22 years at KSE Partners, LLC, Vermont's leading government affairs firm. While at KSE, he led campaigns and counseled companies and non-profits in government strategy, public relations and crisis communications.’
At KSE, he helped lead the firm from three employees to 35, extending its reach into national government affairs consulting and strategic communications.’
Bryan Mills | Partner’
Bryan Mills has spent more than 15 years working in law, advocacy and communications. Bryan is an attorney by training with a background in commercial and residential real estate as well as civil, administrative and municipal law.’
Bryan combined his legal practice with state-level government relations work, lobbying on behalf of local and national clients on various legislative and administrative matters. He has also been involved in many primary and general election campaigns and initiative/referendum campaigns, assisting with grassroots organizing, fundraising and GOTV activities.’
Bryan spent more than 12 years at The Saint Consulting Group, most recently as the vice president of east coast operations, where he worked on dozens of controversial land use and development projects in more than 40 states and Canada.