As I'm sure as many others have, I've spent a lot of time with background too.
What I might do is release a version that's for a typical reader, i.e. one who's not as interested in my story as I am; and then release a background to it later for the few who might be interested.
Maybe just tell the readers what Al Banian does or did, and if they're interested, they can read up about him in your notes.
There's also the possibility that if you don't explain, others might come up with their own, and a few of those might be interesting.