Office of the County Administrator

Ben Pearlman, Interim County Administrator

Ben Pearlman was appointed by the Board of County Commissioners to serve as Interim County Administrator effective Aug. 12, 2026. He will serve in this role until the hiring process for a permanent County Administrator is complete.

Ben has worked for Boulder County in a variety of roles for almost thirty years. In 1997, he joined the County Attorney’s Office where he worked primarily on open space and land use issues. In 2002, Ben moved to the Parks and Open Space Department as special projects manager working with civic, recreational, and environmental interest groups to mediate differences between the various groups and to better understand the public’s priorities for projects. In 2004 and 2008 Ben was elected to the Board of County Commissioners. With his colleagues on the Board and through the hard work of county employees, he worked to strengthen the countywide safety net, protect the local environment, and begin local efforts to address climate change. In 2012, he was appointed Boulder County Attorney. Ben will return to that role when his time as interim County Administrator is over.

Ben lives in Boulder with his wife Kyla and his three boys.

Yvette Bowden, Deputy County Administrator

Yvette is responsible for staff functions within the Office of County Administrator, including the Recovery and Resiliency Division leading Marshall Fire and other disaster recovery efforts; the Board of Equalization managing property tax appeals; Communications functions; and the Business Operations Division that supports administration of the county’s internal facing departments. She also leads cross-functional projects that span areas of responsibility among the departments reporting to the county administrator, and serves as acting county administrator in the administrator’s absence.

Previously, Yvette worked for the city of Boulder in a variety of roles since 2014 and has been a tireless advocate for Boulder’s residents, visitors, businesses, educational and civic groups. She started with the city as deputy director of Parks and Recreation before becoming an assistant city manager. Before moving to Boulder County, she served as President and CEO of the Piedmont Park Conservancy, the most visited public space in Atlanta, and Executive Director of The Giving Tree, an adoption agency for children with special needs in foster care, in Decatur, Georgia.

Yvette holds a juris doctorate degree and a bachelor’s degree in business from Pace University in White Plains, New York, as well as Certification for Leadership in State and Local Government from the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and she was a member of the Urban Land Institute Center of Excellence in 2012.

The Office of the County Administrator includes:

• Board of Equalization
• Business Operations Division
• Communications and Access
• Economic Development
• Recovery and Resiliency Division

The County Administrator is responsible for:

• Community Planning and Permitting
• Community Services
• Housing
• Human Resources
• Human Services
• Information Technology
• Office of Racial Equity
• Parks & Open Space
• Public Works