Novelli began his career at
Unilever, marketing consumer products, before joining the New York ad agency
Wells, Rich, Greene, and then the
Peace Corps in 1970. There he met Jack Porter, with whom he would later form Porter Novelli. Novelli left the Peace Corps in 1972 to briefly join the "
November Group" in the
Nixon White House, forming Porter Novelli later that year. In 1981 they merged
Porter Novelli into Needham, Harper Worldwide, and in 1986 the company combined with Doyle Dane Bernbach and BBDO to form
Omnicom, a global holding company of marketing communications agencies. Novelli left Porter Novelli in 1990 to resume his career in public service, becoming Chief Operating Officer of CARE USA (part of
CARE International). He was involved in CARE's activities in a number of emergencies (including the Rwandan and Somalia genocides) as well as development activities in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Novelli left CARE in 1995 to found the
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a program to discourage youth tobacco smoking in the U.S., with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and partnerships with the
American Cancer Society, the
American Heart Association and other public health organizations. He stepped down as president in 1999 to join AARP, but he continued to serve on the Board of Directors, currently as chairman. Novelli became CEO of AARP in 2001. During his time leading the organization it expanded internationally and gained five million members. He took a key role in passage of the Older Americans Act and was a leader of the "Divided We Fail" coalition, which lobbied the Obama administration for health care reform. He also expanded AARP's Global Aging Program, hosting a Reinventing Retirement conference in London, publishing a Global Report on Aging and participating in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland . In 2009 Novelli left AARP to cofound the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) with Tom Koutsoumpas. C-TAC is a national organization dedicated to reforming advanced illness and end of life care by empowering consumers, changing the healthcare delivery system, improving public policies, and enhancing provider capacity. He currently co-charis the organization. In 2017, Novelli was appointed to the board of directors of the
American Cancer Society. He also sits on the boards of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Advocacy Network and Capital Caring. He co-chairs the Culture & Inclusiveness Action Collaborative of the National Academy of Medicine and served on NAM committees on
The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health and
Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life. He is also co-chair of the advisory board of the Medical Consortium on Climate and Health. == Academic Positions==