Dan Palmiri, past president of Downstate, congratulates Bruce Chester On Thursday, November 1, Bruce Chester of Garden City was installed as president of the Downstate Insurance Associations Council during a conference held at the Huntington Hilton.

Downstate represents six independent agent groups that encompass the five boroughs of New York and Nassau and Suffolk Counties. The six groups are the Tri County Independent Agents Association, the Suffolk County Independent Agents, CPCU of Long Island, The Council of Insurance Brokers, The Queens County Insurance Professionals and The Women's Insurance Network of Long Island. These organizations total some 1,200 members.

At the conference, attendees heard from five former New York State Insurance superintendents, Howard Mills, Greg Serio, James Cororan, Sal Curiale and Al Lewis. These superintendents represented a time period from 1979 to 2005, which was a time of tremendous change in the insurance industry.

Chester, who lived in Mineola for 14 years, is a past president of the Tri County Independent Agents Association and is the owner and president of the Chester Insurance Agency in Carle Place.