Biography

Buddy Dyer is the 32nd Mayor of the City of Orlando. He has been Mayor since 2003 when he was elected in a special election to complete the last year of an existing term.

In 2004, the citizens of Orlando re-elected him to his first, full four-year term. In January 2008, Orlando residents overwhelmingly re-elected him for a second full term.

Upon taking office, Mayor Dyer outlined a bold list of initiatives to accomplish during his tenure in office: solve the City’s budget crisis; revitalize downtown with jobs, entertainment and cultural opportunities; restore the Parramore Heritage Community to its original vibrancy; create top-rated educational facilities; enhance neighborhood amenities such as parks and community centers; and diversify the economy/create a living wage for families.

Mayor Dyer’s vision for Orlando as a world-class city is fast becoming a reality. During his time in office he has:

• Orchestrated one of the most remarkable resurgences of a downtown anywhere in the country with nearly $3 billion dollars worth of development either underway or planned from residential to commercial and retail.

• Strengthened commitment to public safety by putting 75 additional police officers on the street, adding 45 new fire personnel, building two new police substations and three new fire stations.

• Invested resources to ensure neighborhood improvement projects including: Parramore Heritage Park and Pond, Dover Shores Community Center, Dubsdread Sewer Improvements, Lake Eola Park renovation and Primrose Building Improvements.

• Served as only municipality to fund Commuter Rail effort increasing multi-modal transit option for the entire Central Florida region. 

• Approved the vision and plan to develop world-class regional Community Venues including a performing arts center, an events center and renovated Citrus Bowl.

• Continued “Pathways for Parramore” initiative to bring new homes on line, transform Church Street into a major east/west thoroughfare and expand the “Parramore Kidz Zone” to provide after school activities, access to health care and social services to children and families.

• Developed unprecedented public/private partnership to lay the foundation for a Medical City at Lake Nona. The Burnham Institute and UCF Medical School will serve as anchors to this biomedical and health sciences cluster, along with Nemours proposed children’s health care campus and the VA Hospital.

• Recruited House of Moves, the world’s largest motion capture service bureau, to co-locate an east coast operation in the Downtown Orlando Creative Village at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy. Also secured commitment from Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund to bring a $70 million investment to the Parramore Heritage neighborhood, providing opportunities for affordable housing, new jobs and retail development.

• Launched a pre-kindergarten initiative and doubled the number of high quality pre-kindergarten classrooms in the city.

• Opened the downtown campuses of the Florida A&M College of Law, UCF’s School of Film and Digital Media and championed getting a medical school for UCF in east Orlando.

• Balanced the budget and placed public safety as a top priority, making up a $23 million budget shortfall in Mayor Dyer’s first thirty days in office and has continued to do so each year thereafter.

A successful attorney in private practice, Mayor Dyer was first elected to public office in 1992. He served Orlando in the Florida Senate for ten years, being reelected twice. During that time, his colleagues, recognizing his outstanding leadership skills, elected him as their Senate Democratic Leader, a position he held for three years.

Prior to his public service, Mayor Dyer worked as an environmental engineer and practiced law. He earned a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Brown University and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Florida College of Law, where he was Editor-In-Chief of the University of Florida Law Review and a member of Florida Blue Key. He graduated with honors and received the highest score on the Florida Bar Exam that year.

Mayor Dyer was born in Orlando and raised in nearby Kissimmee. He and his wife Karen, an attorney, have two sons, Trey and Drew.