John Verbanac

John Verbanac is a businessman and prominent political operative in Pennsylvania.

Verbanic earned a B.A. degree from the University of Pittsburgh College of General Studies in 1990.[1] He worked in government and politics in Washington, DC as a senior aide and political strategist for two U.S. senators and a member of Congress.[1]

Verbanac worked as consultant for Forest City Enterprises and Harrah's Entertainment in their efforts to secure a casino license from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.[2] The fact that he also was worked as an informal adviser to former Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O'Connor during that time raised questions of impropriety.[3]

Following his time on Capitol Hill, Verbanac entered into several entrepreneurial ventures and held a number of positions in other business endeavors.[1] One of those positions was at Ketchum Communications Worldwide, a prominent public affairs firm, where he worked as vice president of public affairs.[1] There, he handled the accounts for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, GNC, H. J. Heinz Company, Wal-Mart, and MCI Inc..[1] From 1997 to 2000, Verbanac worked as executive vice president of BrabenderCox, a Pennsylvania-based marketing and advertising firm. He helped the firm restructure and launch Adams Marketing, a new venture for BrabenderCox, of which he became president.[1]

He briefly became a partner in IdeaMill, a Pittsburgh-based branding and advertising firm.[1] In 2001, he joined with journalist Albert J. Neri to found Neri-Verbanac Public Affairs, a Harrisburg-based public affairs agency.[1] There, he helped develop The Insider, which became the "largest statewide political publication."[1] The firm was sold in 2005 and Verbanac and Neri parted ways.[1]

In 2005, Verbanac served as a director of the real estate arm of Summa Group, a financial company dealing with service and technology companies.[1] In 2007, Joseph B. Scarnati, President pro tempore of the Pennsylvania Senate, named Verbanac as trustee of his alma mater, University of Pittsburgh.[1]

Verbanac's relationship with Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl became a campaign issue in the 2009 Pittsburgh mayoral election..[4] In 2010, Politics Magazine named him one of the most influential Democrats in Pennsylvania,[5] even though Verbanac is a registered Republican according to Butler County voter registration records.