2017 Congressional Forum: Joe Reardon, President of the Greater KC Chamber of Commerce

Joe Reardon, former Mayor/CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas is President and CEO of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, the area’s oldest and only regional chamber of commerce.  Reardon assumed his post on March 1, 2016.   
During his two terms as Mayor/CEO, Reardon had a number of notable accomplishments:

• He led the successful effort to bring Google high‐speed fiber to his community in a competition that included more than 1100 cities across the nation;
•  Sporting Park Soccer Stadium opened as the state‐of‐the‐art home of Sporting Kansas City;
• And Cerner Corp. announced it was bringing 4000 new jobs to a new campus in the Village West area.  

Prior to his appointment as President/CEO of the KC Chamber, Reardon served as President and CEO of the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, the $86‐million public transportation authority serving the KC region.  Among his accomplishments at the KCATA:

• Reardon developed a seamless regional transit system by negotiating and implementing strategic partnerships to manage service in Johnson County and Independence.
• Successfully negotiated and entered into a Cooperative Agreement with Jackson County to acquire the 17‐mile Rock Island Rail Corridor for future public and transit use.
• Developed the first of its kind public/private partnership to deploy Bridj, an app‐based microtransit system in Kansas City.

As an Adjunct Professor at Rockhurst University, Reardon developed and co‐taught an MBA level class on regionalism, an interdisciplinary course focused on the political and economic aspects of metro areas, with Kansas City as a case study.  
A lawyer by training, Reardon also served as a Partner at McAnany, Van Cleave & Phillips, PA, with a practice focused on economic development, public/private partnerships, and digital infrastructure projects.  
Education
University of Kansas, Lawrence KS – Juris Doctor
Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO – Bachelor of Arts, Political Science  
 
Awards
Wyandotte Countian of the Year
Government Technology’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers Recipient  
Kansas Mayor of the Year, Kansas Mayors’ Association
OneKC Award, Kansas City Area Development Council
 
Reardon and his wife, Amy, live in Kansas City, Kansas with their two sons.