Meet and Greet with Kevin Ruane

Lee County Commissioner Kevin Ruane 

Kevin Ruane was elected to the Lee Board of County Commissioners in November 2020 after serving as the Mayor of Sanibel for more than a decade. He was voted in as Chair by his peers after being sworn in as District 1 Commissioner, which is done annually. Currently, Commissioner Ruane is the Chair of the Lee County Long-term Recovery Task Force.

He had visited Sanibel for 20 years with his family before purchasing a home there in 2004. Hurricane Charley quickly turned Kevin’s attention to becoming a public servant. He signed on as a member of the Hurricane Damage Assessment Team in Sanibel.

Kevin was appointed to the Sanibel City Council to serve an interim position in February 2007. In May 2007, he was elected for a seat on the City Council. He was re-elected in March 2009 and was appointed Mayor in March 2010. He was re-elected in 2013 and 2017.

Kevin has served as a voting delegate for the Florida League of Cities. In 2016, he was instrumental in forming the largest compact for water quality in the organization’s history with more than 165 mayors participating. In 2020, he was awarded the Florida League of Cities E. Harris Drew Municipal Official Lifetime Award.

In 2014, Gov. Rick Scott appointed Kevin to the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force. He was re-appointed in 2019 by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Kevin attended both undergraduate and graduate schools at Pace University with a concentration in accounting and taxation. He took over for his father at his family’s CPA firm and his corporate career included various senior executive positions with a subsidiary of a Fortune 100 company.

Kevin is the owner of Castleton Capital specializing in small business lending for mortgages, business acquisition, equipment financing and franchise lending throughout the United States. His wife, Doreen, daughter, Shannon and son, Kevin all work for the firm.