Buzz: Lynda Remund retires as CEO of Tampa Downtown Partnership

Lynda Remund has retired after more than two decades, including five years as president and CEO, with the Tampa Downtown Partnership.

Longtime senior staff member Shaun Drinkard, the vice president of district services,  will serve as interim president. The Partnership, a nonprofit organization that works to promote the growth and vitality of the city’s urban core, will conduct a national search to fill the position, according to a press release.

Remund started as the Partnership’s director of district operations in October 2000, before rising to chief operating officer and, in January 2018, acting and then permanent president and CEO.

During her time with the Partnership, particularly in recent years, downtown Tampa has gone through a development boom that has transformed it into a mixed-use hub of activity that’s attracted new residents and businesses and national attention. 

“When you can dedicate yourself to a cause that’s as important as your community’s future; work with the finest team in the world; and manage to add in some fun with fireworks, ice skating, and turning a river green—you know you’ve helped create something special,”  Remund says in a press release. “I am confident we have put the right pieces in place to continue Downtown Tampa’s incredible story.”

During Remund’s tenure as president and CEO, the Tampa Downtown Partnership has launched new events like the July 4th fireworks extravaganza Boom by the Bay and the city’s largest Easter egg hunt, Ashley's Eggsploration. The organization also worked with the city on the Lift up Local initiative to help support local businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Remund’s tenue also the first expansion of the Special Services District, the business improvement district the Tampa Downtown Partnership administers under contract with the City of Tampa, since 1994.

 “Lynda’s service to our city has had an immense impact,” Abbey Ahern, chairwoman of the Tampa Downtown Partnership Board of Directors, says in a press statement. “When she joined the team in 2000, most people couldn’t imagine the growth ahead for Downtown Tampa—but Lynda has understood all along how to hold onto all the things we love that make Tampa so special, even as our city has grown tremendously.”