Started in the early 80s, pankratz+associates has a long and storied history that has its founder, Lorin Pankratz, as the focal point. Before panrkatz+associates, Lorin started his career in the United States Army as a Military Intelligence Agent and then moved into law enforcement upon his return home to South Dakota. He started as a State Parole Agent and from there he became a Special Agent with the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation and served his state by working diligently to keep its citizens safe. If you have some time, and even if you don’t, he is likely to regale you with stories that were it not for verifiable and publicly available information, would not seem possible.
Lorin relinquished his special agent status and picked up some new titles when he went into private practice: private investigator, polygraph examiner, and lobbyist. While it may seem that these professions may not have much in common, they share some important similarities. Each requires the ability to recognize important details that might be lost on others, aptitude to read and accurately determine the truth and veracity of a person, and the capacity to sway opinion and mindset to match one’s own. It was with these skills that Lorin effectively represented the largest hospital system in the Midwest for 20 years where he led the effort to establish concussion protocols for K through 12 athletes, foiled a kidnapping plot targeting the grandchildren of the late Governor Bill Janklow, and helped secure funding of more than $70 million to establish the SDSU Swine Research Facility and to upgrade and renovate the South Dakota Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Lab.
Services provided by Lorin include lobbying, investigations, executive director functions, and political strategies.