Clay Pearson joined the City of Pearland, Texas as City Manager in March 2014. During his career, Pearson gained a broad overview and understanding for the varied operations of City government and has worked with the Mayor and City Council to outline and deliver a strong vision of what can be accomplished in Pearland’s future.
Pearson serves Pearland with nearly 25 years’ experience in municipal government. Prior to Pearland, he served the City of Novi, Michigan including as the City Manager for eight years. He had 14 years total in Novi, including six as Assistant City Manager. Prior to Novi, Pearson served the City of Elgin, Illinois for a decade in various capacities, including Assistant City Manager, Budget Officer and Director Code Administration and Neighborhood Affairs.
Pearson is active with the association of local government professionals, the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). With ICMA, Clay has most recently been involved with the chairing the International Committee of the Association. The Committee has conducted meetings in Yangzhou, China; Copenhagen, Denmark, and Wellington, New Zealand under his leadership. He has been active with many aspects of sharing and learning best practices and building networking. He has taught a summer class at the Chinese University of Political Science in Law, Beijing, and presented to the New South Wales, Australia Local Government Association and been a part of an ICMA team providing professional training in South Africa.
Pearson has a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Kansas and a Bachelor’s degree from Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, Minnesota). He serves currently on the Board of the Alliance for Innovation and the Swedish- American Chamber of Commerce of Houston. He has been very involved with the KU public administration program and supporting future generations of public servants. He and his wife, Jennifer live in Pearland.