Governor Perdue Appoints Commissioner of Georgia Merit System

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue announced today the appointment of Wayne St. Claire as the new commissioner of the Georgia Merit System (GMS).  GMS sets the human resource and personnel management policies for Georgia 's 101,000 state employees. 

 “ Wayne will drive my leadership initiative and help us change the culture of the workforce in state government,” said Governor Sonny Perdue.  “With all of his experience in private sector human resources, he knows how to lead and get things done.”

Governor Perdue's leadership initiative, the Georgia Leadership Institute, is a key product resulting from the work of the Commission for a New Georgia.  The Commission's Leadership Development Task Force – headed by Synovus Vice Chairman Lee Lee James – recommended that this new and expanded leadership development initiative was especially important given the fact that 21 percent of Georgia 's public sector managers will retire during the next five years.

St. Claire was a senior human resources executive for Houston 's CenterPoint Energy, the third largest publicly traded natural gas delivery company in the United States .  He has almost 30 years of experience in human resources and has a strong record of executing workforce planning, process improvement, diversity management and other change management initiatives.

St. Claire, 60, and his wife, Pam, will move to Atlanta from Houston , Texas .   They have four children.  He studied business management at Maryville University in St. Louis , Missouri and Louisiana State University in Shreveport , Louisiana and is a member of several national human resources organizations.