Maryland Insurance Commissioner Tyler Resigns to Join Federal Agency

Maryland Insurance Commissioner Ralph S. Tyler has submitted his resignation to Governor O’Malley effective Jan. 8, 2010, to accept an appointment as chief counsel to the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Tyler has been insurance commissioner since September 2007, when he replaced an interim commissioner who served after Steven Orr left the post.

“It has been a great privilege to serve the people of Maryland as insurance
commissioner,” Tyler said in his statement. “I am extremely grateful for the opportunities for public service, first for Baltimore and then for the state, which Governor O’Malley has provided to me.”

When he was named commissioner, Tyler was serving as chief legal counsel for the O’Malley-Brown Administration.

He served as one of the O’Malley’s closest advisors as chief legal counsel and led the effort to reconstitute Maryland’s Public Service Commission with independent and professional regulators.

He has also served as Baltimore’s city solicitor and as the state’s deputy attorney general from 1991 to 1996.

The Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA), which the commissioner runs, regulates Maryland’s $26 billion insurance industry, including the licensing of some 11,000 producers and 1,500 insurance companies.