ALBANY – The chairman of a state fund that held billions of dollars in stock from the conversion of Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield into a for-profit company, Mallory Factor, has resigned to become vice chairman of the board of the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation.

Mr. Factor, a merchant banker and a well-known Republican fund-raiser, helped oversee the takeover of WellChoice, the converted for-profit company, by WellPoint, which netted the state $4 billion in cash and stock.

Those familiar with the negotiations between WellChoice and WellPoint say Mr. Factor helped drive up the latter’s offer. The Public Asset Fund, which he chaired since 2004, twice rejected offers made by WellPoint that had been accepted by WellChoice’s board.

“He did a terrific job for the state and was really crucial in adding hundreds of millions in value for the taxpayer of New York above the original offer accepted by the WellChoice board,” an investment manager and member of the Public Asset Fund board, James Higgins, said.

Messrs. Higgins and Factor are the founders of the Monday Meeting, a high profile political group in New York City.

The Public Asset Fund manages for the state about $2 billion in WellPoint stock from the acquisition.

Mr. Factor is now one of the top people in charge of the planning and redevelopment of 150 acres of Governors Island, which the city and state purchased from the federal government for $1 in 2003. The island is a quarter-mile from Brooklyn and a half-mile from Lower Manhattan. Control of the corporation alternates between the governor’s appointee and the mayor’s. Mr. Factor, tapped by Governor Pataki, will assume the role of vice chairman, a position that is held by Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff.