Grassroots Veteran Nina Verghese Joins APCO Worldwide as Campaigns & Advocacy Practice Lead in Washington, D.C.

Dan Meyers Named deputy managing director for business development
and market growth in Washington, D.C.

Washington – April 20, 2022: Nina Verghese—a communications veteran with more than a decade of experience in grassroots and grasstops campaign development, implementation and management—joined APCO Worldwide as senior director and head of the Campaigns and Advocacy Practice, Licy M. Do Canto, managing director of APCO’s Washington, D.C., headquarters office and mid-Atlantic region lead, announced today.

Verghese will take the helm as the head of the practice from Dan Meyers, who will now serve as the deputy managing director of APCO’s Washington office, focused specifically on working with Do Canto on strategic market growth and business development in the Washington, DC market, effective March 2022. Meyers also will continue to advise and counsel key clients.

“With a successful track record of designing and implementing unique, winning strategies for her clients across industries, including health care, hospitality, retail, transportation and non-profits, Nina brings a potent mix of experience and knowledge of effectively reaching stakeholders,” Do Canto said. “As Dan takes on an expanded leadership role focused on supporting the strategic growth of our Washington office, I am delighted to welcome Nina to APCO, and I look forward to her salient strategic insight.”

Prior to joining APCO, Verghese worked at Locust Street Group, a strategic communications firm based in Washington, where she designed and managed numerous federal, state and local multimillion-dollar strategic advocacy, public affairs and communications campaigns. She previously worked at Direct Impact, a member of the BCW group of companies, and held a variety of political and campaign-related positions, including serving as the national coalition’s director for Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign, deputy regional political director at the Republican National Committee, and at the White House under President George W. Bush.

Upon joining APCO, Verghese added, “political change is one of the biggest drivers of risk in the C-suite today and helping clients advocate for better outcomes has never been more important. I was drawn to APCO’s best-in-class capabilities and global reputation for delivering impactful grassroots campaigns, connecting clients with their key stakeholders and audiences to build trust and drive results. I am thrilled to join APCO and look forward to building on that history of excellence with this dynamic team.”

Verghese joins APCO during a dynamic time of continued growth and expansion of its market-leading team of bipartisan campaigns and advocacy experts. Recently, Mathew Shearman, health and public affairs expert specializing in developing fully integrated, cross-functional strategic communications campaigns, joined APCO as the North America lead of its Health practice. In addition to Do Canto, Meyers and Shearman, the leading, bipartisan team of both APCO campaign and policy experts and International Advisory Council members includes:

• Susan Molinari, former Google vice president of public policy for the Americas and former member of Congress;
• Michael O’Rielly, former commissioner of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission;
• Pamela Passman, former Microsoft corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, and chair of APCO’s Corporate practice and managing director, New York & APCO North;
• Courtney Crowder, leading public affairs, government relations and political strategy expert, and managing director of Raleigh & APCO South;
• Brandon Neal, veteran campaign strategist, former senior government official and transportation expert; and
• Howard Alan Zucker, M.D., former New York State Commissioner of Health.

For more than 38 years, APCO has been a trusted advisor and partner to private, public and non-profit clients as they try to identify and manage new and emerging issues, challenges and opportunities around the world. Established by Margery Kraus as a single-person operation in 1984, APCO has grown to a global advisory and advocacy communications consultancy helping clients be catalysts for progress through its 900+ staff and International Advisory Council members in more than 30 markets, and having experience working in more than 80 markets globally, providing in-depth advice, perceptive guidance and creative approaches for its clients.