[4] Kennedy's business career included working for the Pillsbury Company, assisting with its acquisition of Häagen-Dazs and arranging for financing to support its international expansion.

[10] Kennedy supported the Bush tax cuts and voted for the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan[11] and the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005,[12] while co-sponsoring three other bipartisan bills that year that would expand stem cell research.

[13] His also sponsored a line-item veto,[14] a lifetime ban on all members of Congress becoming lobbyists,[15] full deductibility of medical expenses,[16] no parole for sex offenders,[17] and Medicare Plan Enrollment Fraud Protection.

[30] Also, in 2008 he established the Frontiers of Freedom Lecture Series at the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy at his alma mater, St. John's University.

Kennedy's activities through Chartwell include speaking on applying 360° Vision to bridge differences between business and society; the political left and right; the United States and the world.

[4] In January 2012 Kennedy accepted the position of director and professor at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management.

[4] Kennedy introduced the concept of "Shapeholders" to the field of business strategy—the political, regulatory, media, and activist actors that shape a firm's opportunities and risks.

Kennedy teaches how to effectively engage shapeholders both at home and abroad to profitably advance business strategies while benefiting society.

[46] A Denver Post editorial observed, "We are displeased and a little sickened by the orchestrated opposition to Kennedy based not on his qualifications but on his political affiliation.

The CU Faculty Council has set out to demonize Kennedy in a disturbing manner that bodes poorly for attracting top candidates for this role in the future.

What sane individual with a résumé worthy of any world-class institution would willfully subject himself or herself to the kind of ridicule and public haranguing that Kennedy has faced in recent weeks?

[48] Kennedy’s presidency was marked by several historic milestones for the university in advancing diversity and inclusion, including hiring its first systemwide chief diversity officer,[49] the development of its first Indigenous lands recognition statement,[50] providing support for CU Denver fulfilling its role as newly named Hispanic Servicing Institution,[51] and expanding scholarships for less represented communities, including authorizing match funding for the Charles J. Blackwood, MD, Endowed Memorial Scholarship honoring the School of Medicine's first black graduate.

[55] In 2021, two actions occurred in Boulder, ranked as America's most liberal small town, that were not replicated at the other three communities hosting CU Campuses.

Despite the challenges associated with navigating a global pandemic, 36 Kennedy, working with the regents, advanced several key initiatives including shepherding a coordinated approach to expanding the university’s online offerings [59] and strengthening its technological infrastructure.

[64][65] On June 1, 2021, the Board of Regents announced that administrator Todd Saliman would serve as interim president of the university effective July 1, 2021.

[66] On June 17, 2021, the Board of Regents passed a resolution of appreciation for Kennedy, commending him for his service to the university and conferring upon him the title of president emeritus.

[67] Kennedy joined the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a non-partisan Washington DC–based think tank, as a Global Fellow focused on geopolitical strategic competition.