Gerald Fels, outgoing CEO of Webster-based Commerce Insurance/Mapfre, has been named interim president of Nichols College in Dudley.
Fels announced his retirement from Commerce at the company’s annual meeting this week. He is being replaced as CEO by COO Jaime Tamayo.
Fels graduated from Nichols in 1966 and joined the Commerce Insurance Co. in 1975 as CFO. He became CEO in 2006.
He has been a member of the Nichols board of trustees for 15 years. He will be taking the place of Debra Townsley, who resigned as college president in May in order to become president of Peace College in North Carolina.
Fels will continue to serve on the board of directors of Commerce’s Spanish parent company Mapfre/USA.
