Mayor of Dallas; Texas

Mike Rawlings (born August 25, 1954) is the 61st and current Mayor of Dallas after winning the 2011 Dallas mayoral election defeating former Dallas Police Chief, David Kunkle. He is also the former CEO of Pizza Hut and a former chief executive of the Tracy-Locke ad agency. In addition to his work in the city, Rawlings is also a prominent opponent of domestic violence, speaking at many events, including a Ring The Bell event at the United Nations alongside actor Patrick Stewart. 

The Borger, Texas, native worked his way up from an entry-level position at TracyLocke, then the largest advertising agency in the South, to become the CEO. Later, he took the helm of the world's largest pizza company, Pizza Hut, and grew it to record sales. Rawlings then served as chairman and managing partner of private equity firm CIC Partners, where he is currently the vice chairman. He provides business counsel and capital, helping to grow small and mid-sized businesses in Dallas and across the country.
Public service has long been important to the 1976 Boston College graduate. He previously served as chair of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, the city's homeless czar and park board president and he currently sits on the Jesuit College Preparatory Board of Trustees. 
Rawlings decided in early 2011 to run for Dallas mayor on a platform that highlighted southern Dallas as the city's greatest untapped resource. Following his June 2011 election, he launched GrowSouth, his signature initiative to spur economic development south of the Trinity River. He's also fought to improve public education, combat poverty, revitalize Fair Park, develop the Trinity River corridor, elevate the city's international profile and turn our city into a top destination for artists all over the world. He's drawn headlines across the country for his bold campaign against domestic violence, Dallas Men Against Abuse. He has presided over the passage of $600 million in new city bonds to fund streets, flood protection and economic development initiatives and he led the City Council through the hiring process for a new city manager and city attorney. 
During Rawlings' time in office, Dallas has experienced impressive economic growth. Unemployment as of June 2015 had dropped to 4.1 percent, as compared to 5.5 percent one year earlier. Taxable sales continue to rise and property tax values increased in 2015 by 7.7 percent over the prior year.
Rawlings was re-elected to a second four-year term in May 2015, beating his challenger in all but one of 14 City Council districts. He continues to put Dallas in the national spotlight, in part through his post as an executive committee member for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Rawlings and his wife, Micki, live in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of North Dallas. Their two children, Gunnar, an educator, and Michelle, an artist, also live in the city. 




Dallas

Dallas, is a major city in the state of Texas and is the largest urban center of the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the United States. The city proper ranks ninth in the U.S. and third in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. The city's prominence arose from its historical importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries, and its position along numerous railroad lines. The bulk of the city is in Dallas County, of which it is the county seat; however, sections of the city are located in Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties. According to the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 1,197,816. The United States Census Bureau's estimate for the city's population increased to 1,300,092 as of July 1, 2015. 

The city is the largest economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area (commonly referred to as DFW), which had a population of 7,102,796 as of July 1, 2015, representing growth in excess of 676,000 people since the 2010 census. In 2014, the metropolitan economy surpassed Washington, DC to become the fifth largest in the United States, with a 2014 real GDP over $504 billion. In 2013, the metropolitan area led the nation with the largest year-over-year increase in employment and advanced to become the fourth-largest employment center in the nation (behind New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago) with more than three million non-farm jobs. As of April 2016, the metropolitan job count has increased to 3,498,200 jobs. The city's economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare and medical research, and transportation and logistics. The city is home to the third-largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation (behind New York City and Houston). In the latest rankings released in 2013, Dallas was rated as a "beta plus" world city by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network, and was 14th in world rankings of GDP by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Located in North Texas, Dallas is the main core of the largest metropolitan area in the South and the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea. Dallas and nearby Fort Worth were developed due to the construction of major railroad lines through the area allowing access to cotton, cattle, and later oil in North and East Texas. The construction of the Interstate Highway System reinforced Dallas' prominence as a transportation hub with four major interstate highways converging in the city, and a fifth interstate loop around it. Dallas developed as a strong industrial and financial center, and a major inland port, due to the convergence of major railroad lines, interstate highways, and the construction of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, one of the largest and busiest airports in the world.