New Alaska Gov. Bill Walker will keep the education commissioner from the previous administration of Gov. Sean Parnell, according to an announcement from the governor's office Tuesday morning.
Walker said in a news release that he'd approved the state Board of Education's reappointment of Mike Hanley, who was first approved by Parnell to lead the Department of Education and Early Development in 2010.
Walker also said Tuesday that he'd chosen a new commissioner of the Department of Administration, Sheldon Fisher, a finance and telecommunications executive who lost a Republican primary campaign to U.S. Rep. Don Young in 2010.
Hanley has a master's degree in educational leadership from University of Alaska Anchorage, Walker's office said in a news release. Before working for the state, he was a teacher and principal at the Anchorage School District and a commercial fisherman.
Fisher recently worked as the chief operating officer at an investment firm in Anchorage, McKinley Capital Management, and before that was a vice president of sales and marketing at Alaska Communications.
Fischer received 23 percent of the vote to Young's 70 percent in the 2010 Republican primary.
Fisher will lead a department with a $350 million budget. It's responsible for oversight of the state's Public Defender Agency, the motor vehicles division, and "a host of other services," according to the department's website.