Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, says he will appoint Doug Ommen to be Iowa’s insurance commissioner.
Ommen has been the state’s acting commissioner since Dec. 26. He succeeds Nick Gerhart, who left to become the chief administrative officer of West Des Moines, Iowa-based FBL Financial Group.
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Ommen has been Iowa’s deputy insurance commissioner since 2013. Before that, he served as the Missouri insurance commissioner under Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican. In Missouri, he also worked as an administrative law judge, and later as chief counsel of the state’s consumer protection division.
Ommen has a bachelor’s degree from Rockhurst University and a law degree from St. Louis University.
He has been active at the Kansas City, Missouri-based National Association of Insurance Commissioners. He serves on many NAIC bodies, including the Life Actuarial Task Force, the health insurance Regulatory Framework Task Force, the Senior Issues Task Force and the Capital Adequacy Task Force.