Haley names acting director of insurance agency

COLUMBIA -- Gov. Nikki Haley has named an acting chief of South Carolina's insurance agency following the director's abrupt resignation.

Haley made Gwen Fuller McGriff acting director. Haley informed legislative leaders of her choice in a letter Wednesday evening, soon after 54-year-old Director David Black resigned without explanation. He informed employees of his decision in an email Wednesday afternoon. His resignation was effective immediately.

The Greenville resident left 11 months after Haley chose him. The Senate confirmed his appointment in February. His salary was $112,407.

Black did not return messages Thursday from The Associated Press.

“Since I have enjoyed this work and your friendship, this was not an easy decision,” Black wrote in the five-sentence email to staff. “I have been touched from the very beginning by your hospitality and inspired by your hard work and dedication to making improvements within the department for the public benefit.”

A request for a copy of any resignation letter to the governor was not immediately provided.

Fuller McGriff has been the agency's director of legal, legislative and external affairs, making $121,439. She's among four agency employees with salaries higher than Black's. She was not in the office Thursday and was unreachable.

In her letter, Haley wrote that she plans to name an interim director soon.

Black was president and CEO of Liberty Life Insurance from 2004 until March 2010. The Greenville-based company was part of the Royal Bank of Canada's insurance operations. Last year, the Royal Bank announced it was selling Liberty Life for $628 million to Athene Holding Ltd., and expected to show a loss of $405 million by U.S. accounting principles.

Black replaced Scott Richardson, a former GOP state senator that former Gov. Mark Sanford appointed to the job in February 2007.

Black's departure represents another change in Haley's administration.

• South Carolina's first inspector general, a position Haley created by executive order in March, quietly resigned in April amid frustrations about setting up the office and the operation's independence. The departure of George Schroeder, the former decades-long director of the Legislative Audit Council, wasn't known until he confirmed it to the AP six weeks later.

• In July, the director of the Budget and Control Board, which oversees much of state government operations, resigned to take a role in government in her home state of Texas. Haley had hand-picked Eleanor Kitzman in January to lead the agency.

Kitzman had previously led South Carolina's insurance agency from 2005 to 2007, when she resigned over a disagreement with Sanford on coastal insurance. The Houston native started her job as Texas' insurance commissioner in August.

• A member of Haley's inner circle resigned in September for a job as chief lobbyist at the University of South Carolina. Former deputy chief of staff Trey Walker was Haley's legislative liaison.

• In October, Haley named a veteran of the Florida Highway Patrol to lead the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, passing over her interim director amid allegations of two affairs. Col. Kenny Lancaster took the job on an interim basis in June when Haley put former Director Mark Keel in charge of a different Cabinet agency.

Maj. Leroy Smith took the helm of DPS on Nov. 15, days after the attorney general's office concluded its review of Lancaster, saying there was nothing to prosecute.