Joe Reardon (born 1968) is an American attorney who is the former mayor/CEO of the

consolidated city-county In local government in the United States, United States local government, a consolidated city-county (#Terminology, see below for alternative terms) is formed when one or more city, cities and their surrounding County (United States), county (Lis ...

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City (commonly known as KCK) is the third-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As ...

and Wyandotte County. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Personal life and education

Reardon was born in 1968, to Jack Reardon, who also served as mayor of

. Reardon is a lifelong resident of Kansas City. He has a wife, Amy, and two sons, Jack and Connor. Reardon graduated from Rockhurst University in 1990 with a BS degree in political science. He joined

Tau Kappa Epsilon Tau Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as or Teke, is a social college fraternities and sororities, fraternity founded on January 10, 1899, at Illinois Wesleyan University. The organization has chapters throughout the United States and Canada, maki ...

at Rockhurst. Reardon went on to earn a Juris Doctor degree from

University of Kansas School of Law The University of Kansas School of Law is the law school of the University of Kansas, a public research university in Lawrence, Kansas. The University of Kansas Law School was founded in 1893, replacing the earlier Department of Law, which had ex ...

in 1994.

Career

After law school, Reardon joined the law firm McAnany, Van Cleave & Phillips from 1994 to 1999 as an Associate Attorney. In 1999, he began working for Thomson Reuters Westlaw, where he stayed until he was elected mayor of Kansas City, Kansas in 2005. Reardon began the public service portion of his career when he was elected Wyandotte County Commissioner in 2003, representing the second district in the downtown area. Reardon was elected mayor of

after his predecessor, Carol Marinovich, chose not to run for a third term. Reardon helped build

Sporting Park Children's Mercy Park is a soccer-specific stadium in Kansas City, Kansas, United States, and is the team home for Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer (MLS). The stadium is located near Kansas Speedway, on the far west side of Wyandott ...

, the home of

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The ad ...

. Reardon also played a role in attracting Google Fiber to the city. Reardon was also credited with helping to attract a casino and a Cerner development. In 2012, Reardon was named

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

Mayor of the Year. After his term as mayor ended, Reardon returned to the law firm McAnany, Van Cleave & Phillips. Reardon became President/CEO of the Greater KC Chamber of Commerce in 2016. Reardon serves on the boards of the Kansas Secretary of Commerce’s Start-Up Village Resource Committee, the University of Kansas Medical Center Advancement Board, and the KCI Airport Study Panel. Reardon founded Healthy Communities Wyandotte. He also joined Rockhurst University in August 2013 as an adjunct professor and executive in residence for the Helzberg School of Management.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reardon, Joe Living people 21st-century mayors of places in Kansas 1968 births Kansas Democrats Kansas lawyers Rockhurst University alumni University of Kansas School of Law alumni Politicians from Kansas City, Kansas