Our President

Berry Vrbanovic, President

With over 25 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, FCM's President, Councillor Berry Vrbanovic of Kitchener, Ontario, has a long history of professional municipal experience and elected community leadership. Initially joining the City of Kitchener as a staff person in 1986, Councillor Vrbanovic was first elected in 1994 and since then has worked tirelessly not only for his constituents and for the residents of Kitchener, but also for the broader local government movement, both nationally and internationally.

As the representative for Ward 2 on Kitchener City Council, Councillor Vrbanovic serves as the chair of the Planning & Strategic Initiatives Committee, and previously has served as chair of the city's Finance & Corporate Services committee and co-chair of both the Environmental and Safe & Healthy Community Advisory Committees. In those roles, he has championed initiatives ranging from sustainability best practices and a Citizen's Report on Air Quality to issues of diversity, citizen engagement and community crime prevention. A passionate advocate of grassroots community development, Councillor Vrbanovic is known to roll up his sleeves and has worked actively with numerous community groups, including the neighbourhood associations in his ward, where in 1998 he co-founded a police-youth mentoring program which continues to help at-risk youth in the community.

Councillor Vrbanovic has served on the boards of numerous community and national organizations, including Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro Inc., St. Mary's Hospital, Wilfrid Laurier University, Kitchener Public Library, Canadian Police Sector Council, Centre in the Square, K-W Oktoberfest Advisory Council, the large urban caucus of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and on FCM's Board of Directors.

He first joined FCM's Board in 2000. Since then, he has held numerous positions at FCM, including chair of the Standing Committee on Community Safety and Crime Prevention, chair of the Standing Committee on International Relations, and chair of the Ontario Caucus. 

Councillor Vrbanovic's passion for FCM International comes from being born overseas in Croatia and immigrating to Canada as a young child.  Heavily engaged in FCM's international capacity-building work, in the Fall of 2005 Councillor Vrbanovic became chair of FCM's Tsunami Advisory Committee, leading the oversight of several years of post-tsunami capacity-building projects in regions within Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Councillor Vrbanovic also represents FCM on the Executive Bureau and World Council of United Cities and Local Government.

Outside of his municipal responsibilities, Councillor Vrbanovic has had a varied career ranging from owning small businesses to being the Executive Director of a national organization. In recent years, he has done municipal capacity-building training in countries within the Gulf region including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In his spare time, he enjoys travelling, reading, cycling and swimming.