John J. Tecklenburg (born September 1955) is an American businessman and politician. He is the current Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina. He was sworn in on January 11, 2016.

Early life and education

An Orangeburg native, Tecklenburg graduated from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

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, with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in chemistry and later studied

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

at Berklee College of Music in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Career

Tecklenburg was Charleston's director of economic development from 1995 to 1999. He is a commercial realtor. Tecklenburg ran for mayor of Charleston and won against Leon Stavrinakis on November 17, 2015. Tecklenburg was preceded by Joe Riley who was mayor of Charleston for 40 years. In June 2020, in the wake of widespread protests against racism, Mayor Tecklenburg announced a decision to remove a statue of John C. Calhoun, a prominent South Carolinian defender of slavery, from a prominent public space in Charleston, in Marion Square.

Personal life

Tecklenburg and his wife Sandy have five children and five grandchildren. In May 2018, Tecklenburg was removed from being a conservator for an elderly woman. Tecklenburg had used his ward's funds to make unsecured loans to himself and his wife totaling $80,000. He had not sought the court's approval as required by law.

References

1955 births American real estate brokers American real estate businesspeople Berklee College of Music alumni Businesspeople from South Carolina Georgetown College (Georgetown University) alumni Living people Mayors of Charleston, South Carolina South Carolina Democrats {{SouthCarolina-mayor-stub