Senior Director, Seven Letter
Communications, Citizens for Rauner
Senior Project Director, Luntz Global

Dave Knaus is a partner at Penta, where he leads teams that help clients measure and optimize their government and external relations strategies across a variety of industries and sectors.

Dave is a veteran communicator with over a decade of advocacy, campaign, and market and public opinion research experience. Prior to joining Ballast, he was Senior Director at Seven Letter, an award-winning public affairs firm based in Washington. Previously, he was a senior campaign aide to Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and worked for top Republican pollster and political strategist Frank Luntz, managing research projects dissecting the mindsets of consumers and voters in the U.S. and abroad.

Dave graduated from Denison University in Granville, Ohio. When he’s not working, he can be found exploring the great outdoors.
In Brussels, he was responsible for all aspects of UK approaches to EU financial services during a critical time of post financial crisis re-regulation and pre-Brexit dynamics, and he personally led negotiations on key legislation such as MIFID2, EMIR, MAR, and UCITS. He also worked for the Financial Services Authority during the financial crisis, and at HM Treasury.