Jason Mathis named CEO of St. Pete Downtown Partnership

The board of the St. Pete Downtown Partnership has named Jason Mathis as its new Chief Executive Officer. Mathis comes to St. Pete and the Downtown Partnership with more than 20 years of leadership experience in the nonprofit space, most recently from the Downtown Alliance of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Mathis will hit the ground running. He’ll begin his role remotely on Aug. 6, and be on the ground in St. Petersburg on the 13th.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am,” said Melissa Seixas, Chair of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership Board.

“We wanted this to be a significant milestone for the Partnership. When I took over as chair in January, it had already been announced that our current CEO was leaving, so we started moving quickly.”

The Partnership undertook a national effort to find Mathis, utilizing the firm HRS to conduct the search. Seixas said they chose HRS because of its focus on economic development organizations and downtown corridors.

After a full search process involving multiple rounds and board consideration, as well as community involvement, Mathis was chosen.

“Jason has a full complement of what we were looking for,” said Seixas. “He’s familiar with the area, he’s spent time here. Whenever his family vacations in Florida, he’s been sure to make a trip to St. Petersburg.

“Not only that, but we saw example after example of Jason working through complex issues and opportunities inherent to the position.”

Seixas made special note of Mathis’ collaborative style, something she says will aid him in his work with the City of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and the Innovation District. All are important players to the downtown area.

“Really, he’s just a very nice guy. I think the Downtown Partnership will benefit from working in alignment with these other organizations to propel the city forward.”