Tampa Downtown Partnership leader to step down

Tampa Downtown Partnership President and CEO Lynda Remund has announced her decision to retire after working for the organization for more than two decades. She will be succeeded on an interim basis by longtime senior staff member Shaun Drinkard.

According to a news release, Tampa Downtown Partnership will conduct a nationwide search for Remund’s permanent replacement.

“Under the leadership of Lynda, Tampa's Downtown has grown into the live, work and play powerhouse of this region,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor states in the release. “We cannot thank her enough for her decades of service to this community and appreciate that she is leaving us with an organization ready to continue that legacy.”

Remund, the release states, spent the past five years of her tenure with the organization as president and CEO. Under her leadership, the partnership launched new landmark public events, such as Boom by the Bay and Eggsploration; supported businesses and residents through the pandemic; and helped shape newly emerging neighborhoods in Tampa’s rapidly growing downtown core.

“Lynda’s service to our city has had an immense impact,” states Abbey Ahern, chair of the Tampa Downtown Partnership’s board of directors and principal at commercial real estate firm Dohring Ahern, in the release. “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.”

Tampa Downtown Partnership is a private, membership-based, nonprofit made up of companies, organizations and individuals with a common goal of advancing Tampa's downtown. Its programs and initiatives include Tampa’s Downtown Guides and Clean Team.