Malad native and MHS graduate Ned Thomas was appointed to serve as City Manager of Boulder City, Nevada, on Tuesday, January 14, 2025. In making this appointment, the Boulder City Council cited Thomas’ extensive experience in local government and politics as well as his knowledge of southern Nevada. He will start in his new position in March.

Mr. Thomas currently serves as the City Manager of Milpitas, California, a community with over 81,000 residents. He was appointed as Milpitas City Manager in October 2023 after serving in an interim role for four months. He had previously served as Planning Director in Milpitas for five years, where he directed work on a broad range of matters related to land use planning, zoning code enforcement, urban design, and economic development.

Prior to joining the City of Milpitas, Mr. Thomas served as a Planning Division Manager for the City of San Jose, where he oversaw both development review and environmental review functions and conducted weekly hearings on a variety of development projects. Prior to his work at the City of San José, Thomas served as Community Development Director for the Town of Windsor, in Sonoma County, where he supervised all planning, building, and code
enforcement activities.

Prior to working in the Bay Area, Thomas served for several years as a planner and urban designer for the City of North Las Vegas, where he helped develop plans for dozens of residential subdivisions and master-planned communities, managed an award-winning transit-oriented development plan, and authored the City’s first mixed-use design guidelines. He later served as an appointed member of the North Las Vegas Planning Commission. As Principal Planner for the City of Henderson, Nevada, Thomas established and led an award-winning sustainability program to promote energy and water conservation, renewable energy, recycling, and public transit.

Thomas graduated from BYU in 1989 and holds a master’s degree in urban planning from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He also studied urban and regional planning as a Fulbright Scholar at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan. He has been a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners since 2005. He and his wife, Cherlynn, own a home in Henderson, Nevada, and are the parents of four children.