Mayor Buddy Dyer Biography
As Mayor, Buddy Dyer has been focused on making the promise of Orlando – ensuring a great quality of life for residents and expanding opportunity for all – a reality. By choosing collaboration and unity over partisanship and division, Mayor Dyer has worked to increase partnerships between Central Florida’s government organizations, businesses, community groups and residents to help shape Orlando into a vibrant, inclusive city that is focused on the future.
That promise starts with the City of Orlando’s most important role: helping to keep the community safe. Thanks to the efforts of officers and the residents that they partner with, the Orlando Police Department has succeeded in its efforts to reduce crime. Mayor Dyer’s commitment to public safety is also reflected in the Orlando Fire Department’s status as one of the elite departments in the nation.
Mayor Dyer is leading the efforts to diversify Central Florida’s economy and create a new breed of high-wage careers in cutting-edge industries like life sciences and technology. Innovation hubs have been created at Medical City in Lake Nona and in downtown’s Creative Village, a 68-acre site with the UCF Downtown, Valencia College Downtown campus and the new Orlando studio of Electronic Arts.
Orlando has also become one of the best places nationally to start a business. The city’s Orlando Main Streets program is helping small businesses succeed, while offering residents unique goods, services and experiences. Recent Orlando accomplishments also include new community venues – Kia Center, the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and Inter&Co Stadium - and the renovation of Camping World Stadium. The venues have brought world-class entertainment and sporting events to the city, and even more visitors to the region.
Mayor Dyer is the leading voice for all of Central Florida to address challenges that are impacting communities nationwide, including homelessness and affordable housing. The City of Orlando is helping advance the shared priority that every resident has a safe place to sleep, and their basic needs of clothing, food and hygiene met. Mayor Dyer is also ensuring that the need for safe, affordable housing for residents is addressed by making investments and collaborating to bring new and rehabilitated apartments and homes to the city.
Recognizing the need for safer, convenient ways to move throughout the region, Mayor Dyer is an advocate for the expansion of mobility options. Advances under his leadership include SunRail, Central Florida’s first commuter rail system that launched in 2014, the new Terminal C at Orlando International Airport and an expansion of the city’s bike trail network. He has also made sustainability a priority for the City of Orlando to ensure that Orlando continues to be a desirable place to live, work and play.
Mayor Dyer is determined to ensure that all residents have access to opportunities that help them thrive. Recent City of Orlando actions to support that mission include expanding successful youth programs like the Parramore Kidz Zone and My Brother’s Keeper Orlando so academic support, mentoring and career training can be offered to more young residents. Under Mayor Dyer’s leadership, a Community Response Team was created so trained behavioral health professionals responding to some non-violent 911 calls, connecting those in need to treatment and support.
Mayor Dyer helped the community come together following the June 2016 Pulse nightclub tragedy, vowing that Orlando would not be defined by one hateful act that took the lives of 49 people, but instead by responding with love and compassion. The unity was on display in the hours after the tragedy when residents waited for hours to donate blood, and later at vigils and memorials and as millions of dollars were raised to support victims’ families and survivors through the OneOrlando Fund.
The longest-serving Mayor in Orlando history, Mayor Dyer was originally voted into office in 2003. He is currently in his sixth full term leading Orlando. Prior to being elected Mayor, he served in the Florida Senate. Mayor Dyer earned his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Brown University and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Florida College of Law. He was born in Orlando and raised in nearby Kissimmee. Mayor Dyer is married to Susie and is the proud father of two sons, Trey and Drew, and grandfather to Forrest.