Linda Wardell, General Manager, City Creek Center
Linda Wardell is the 2019 recipient of the Salt Lake Chamber’s ATHENA Leadership Award. She will receive the award at the Women & Business Conference and ATHENA Awards Luncheon to be held on Nov. 12 in Salt Lake City. This year’s winners of the chamber’s Pathfinder Awards will also be honored at the event.
Wardell is the general manager of City Creek Center, the retail portion of the City Creek retail, entertainment, business and residential development in downtown Salt Lake City. The center is one of the largest mixed-use downtown redevelopment projects in the nation.
With more than 30 years of experience in managing and marketing shopping centers, Wardell oversees retail operations for the landmark shopping and dining destination.
A seasoned retail executive, Wardell received her first taste of the shopping center industry at an Atlanta-based boutique advertising agency. Her clients included Taubman, owner and operator of City Creek Center that would eventually become her employer. She has played a pivotal role in the grand openings of several high-profile properties, including Polaris Fashion Place, a 1.5 million-square-foot shopping center in Columbus, Ohio. She spent nine years with Glimcher Realty Trust, owner of Polaris, and while there opened two shopping centers and earned frequent career promotions, eventually serving as vice president of marketing.
Wardell joined Taubman in January 2007 and was named to manage Salt Lake City’s City Creek Center. She and her team took over management of the property which opened in March 2012.
A native of Atlanta, Wardell earned her B.A. in communications from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
Wardell is involved in the community and is the chair of the Salt Lake Chamber. She serves on the board for the Downtown Alliance, Executive Committee of the Women’s Leadership Institute, Zions Bank advisory board and the business advisory board for Westminster College.