Zober Named Deputy Mayor, City of Pittsburgh

Yarone Zober, MPM 2000, was named Deputy Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh on August 6, 2006. Deputy Mayor Zober has all the powers of an elected mayor except for the power to appoint or terminate top staff.   Mayor Bob O’Connor made this appointment while under treatment for cancer.

In addition to his MPM degree from the Heinz School, Yarone completed his law degree at the University of Pittsburgh.  As a fifth generation Pittsburgh resident, he has served the community in many capacities, including as an AmeriCorps community service worker; aide to former city Councilman Jim Ferlo; aide in Mr. Ferlo’s successful campaign for Pennsylvania Senate; attorney, first for Reed Smith and then Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel; city policy director in the O’Connor administration; and recently named the director of the city’s General Services Department.

Yarone was born in Israel on a kibbutz where his parents were temporarily working.  Later, he lived in Jerusalem for six years and absorbed the tradition of Tikkun Olam, or “repairing the world.”  “Every day, you find out what’s broken and try to fix it,” he said.