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  1. About the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP)

John Verbeten, BS
Leadership Role

John Verbeten picture
John Verbeten, BS

John Verbeten was appointed as director of the Office of Compliance and Enforcement at the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2024. As director of the Office of Compliance and Enforcement, Mr. Verbeten is responsible for a wide range of compliance and enforcement efforts required for tobacco product regulation, including compliance education, surveillance, inspections, investigations, and enforcement activities to ensure compliance of the law by regulated industry.

Mr. Verbeten is coming to CTP from FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), where he has served as the Deputy Director for Import Operations Enforcement within the Office of Import Operations (OIO). He has over 20 years of experience providing direction to, and leadership of, field operations, compliance and enforcement, and national-level program management. In his latest role within OIO, Mr. Verbeten served as the Principal Advisor to ORA leadership on import operations and enforcement activities and oversees FDA’s field import operations, which includes a staff of more than 700 people. He also provided leadership in the development, implementation and evaluation of new laws, regulations, and policies related to ORA’s global and national programs and activities.

As a result of his work, Mr. Verbeten has had several notable accomplishments. Most recently, he led the agency’s development of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between FDA and U.S. Postal Service (USPS), which established a framework that provides a basis for the development of bilateral data exchange and provides FDA access to USPS advanced electronic data for imported mail shipments. In addition, Mr. Verbeten led the FDA import operational strategy and response to the national infant formula shortage, including supporting FDA’s initiative to mitigate the shortage by implementing screening criteria changes to expedite importation of infant formula from historical suppliers and those identified under the agency's enforcement discretion program. Mr. Verbeten has also championed operations in support of FDA’s artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives.

Prior to his latest role within OIO, Mr. Verbeten was the Director for the Division of Import Operations within the OIO/ORA/FDA; before that, Mr. Verbeten spent 14 years in ORA’s field operations, mostly as an inspector in the import program.

Mr. Verbeten holds a B.S. degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.


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Contact Information
John Verbeten,
1-877-287-1373 (9am EST-4pm EST)
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