Pete Rummell

Peter Stevenson Rummell (born October 13, 1945) is an American real estate businessman. He has held senior positions at several companies, heading two branches of The Walt Disney Company and as CEO of the St. Joe Company. Disney's planned community of Celebration, Florida was his brainchild. He is a founding board member and the primary financial backer of One Spark, a crowdfunding festival in Jacksonville, Florida.

Education Rummell attended The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, then completed his undergraduate education in 1967 with an Artium Baccalaureus (AB) degree in English literature with a Chemistry double major from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His first job involved selling laboratory equipment to hospitals, and he realized that he was not a salesman. Friends attending the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania encouraged him to join them, so he enrolled there and received an MBA in 1971.

Early career Rummell began his real estate career with the Sea Pines Company in 1971, where he was involved in the development of resort communities on Hilton Head and Amelia Island, Florida. Beginning in 1977, he was with the Arvida Corporation, where he was general manager of the Sawgrass development in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. In 1983, he was named vice chairman of Rockefeller Center Management, which markets, leases and manages the 18 buildings in midtown Manhattan that encompass Rockefeller Center in New York City. Rummell left in 1985 to become president of Disney Development Company. At Disney, he helped manage the company's theme park and resort development, including Walt Disney World in Orlando, and was a driving force behind the 5,000-acre, 20,000-person planned community of Celebration, Florida. Rummell pitched the idea to Disney CEO Michael Eisner in 1989 and described his vision of Celebration: wonderful residential town east of I-4 that has a human scale with sidewalks and bicycles and parks and the kind of architecture that is sophisticated and timeless. It will have fiber optics and smart houses, but the feel will in many cases be closer to Main Street than to Future World.

From 2003 to 2006 Rummell wason the board of directors of Progress Energy and Carolina Power & Light; In September 2007, Rummell was named a director of Real estate investment trust AvalonBay Communities due to his extensive experience in real estate development, and is currently a private investor.

Civic involvement Rummell was co-chairman of Jacksonville's host committee that was successful in their quest to have the city selected for Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005.

He was an Urban Land Institute officer and trustee who was also chairman of the ULI Foundation in the 2000s.

He chaired the Florida Council of 100 from 2005 to 2007, to 2006, Rummell was appointed by governor Jeb Bush as a member of the Florida Board of Governors, which provides policy oversight of the university system for the State of Florida.

Personal life Peter and his wife, Lee Ann, have two children: Mahala Hunter (born 1992) and Harry Stevenson II (born 1994). They reside primarily in Jacksonville, Florida.