Dr. Laurence Kennedy has been appointed as Chairman of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism Department at Cleveland Clinic as of April 2009. Dr. Kennedy graduated from medical school at Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1972. He completed his medical residency and clinical endocrine training at the teaching hospitals in Belfast before coming to the US in 1978 as a research fellow in endocrinology at University of Florida, Gainesville. His research was in the field of glycation of proteins "hemoglobin, plasma proteins, collagen" and the relationship with complications of diabetes mellitus.

After returning to Belfast in 1980 he was on the faculty of the Royal Victoria Hospital, the main teaching hospital in Belfast, where he continued his clinical research activities in the diabetes field and also in pituitary disease and Cushing's syndrome. He returned to the US in the mid 1990s, and was Chief of the Endocrine Division at the University of Florida for approximately 10 years.

Dr Kennedy has approximately 100 original publications in peer-reviewed journals. He previously served as Chair of the Grant Review Committee of the American Diabetes Association, and is on the Editorial Board of Diabetes Care.