Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon announced today that former Secretary of State Al Ater will serve as Chief Deputy Commissioner of Insurance where he will once again manage the Department’s day-to-day operations. His appointment is effective January 11, 2010.

Ater was Chief Deputy Commissioner of Insurance from July 2004 until he returned to the Department of State in March 2005, where he acted as First Assistant until being named Secretary of State in July 2005. As Secretary of State, Ater was responsible for overseeing the operations of the Department of Elections and Commercial Division as well as 14 state museums and the preservation of Louisiana’s historical data. Ater is a native of Ferriday, Louisiana, where he and his wife Susie currently reside.

Ater is a private businessman, a farmer and a former State Representative, having been elected to the Louisiana Legislature in 1984 and again four year later without opposition. While serving in the House of Representatives with Commissioner Donelon, Ater was Vice Chairman of the Transportation, Highways and Public Works Committee. In 1991 Ater chose not to run for re-election and returned to farming. In 2001 he joined the Department of State as First Assistant Secretary of State, where he spearheaded the merger of the Department of Elections with the Department of State.

Deputy Commissioner Denise Brignac will become the Department’s Chief of Staff after serving as Chief Deputy Commissioner since February 2008. Brignac is a former Deputy Commissioner of the Department’s Office of Financial Solvency and will continue to serve as the Commissioner’s designee on the board of the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, where she is chairwoman of the board. Brignac is a native of Greensburg, Louisiana.

Commissioner Donelon says he is pleased with the Department’s new management team and he is looking forward to working with both Ater and Brignac in their new leadership positions in the coming year. “Al’s experience and understanding of state government is invaluable, and Denise’s ability to manage the Department’s staff, along with her vast knowledge of insurance regulation, makes both of them a huge asset to our Department,” Donelon says.