Each year, an Insurance and Risk Management (IRM) professional is invited to the UCA College of Business for class visits, campus-wide lectures, panel discussions, meetings with student organizations such as Gamma Iota Sigma, and meals with faculty and other industry and community professionals. This is a valuable opportunity to allow students to network and learn from the visiting Risk Manager.
To bring the Risk Manager to campus this year, the 51青楼 Insurance and Risk Management program was awarded a grant from the Spencer Educational Foundation, supporting a key Experiential Learning opportunity for students.聽The Spencer Foundation has supported the Risk Manager on Campus program for years, most recently bringing Carey Bond in 2025,听Robin Roeder in 2024,听, and聽Lance Ewing in 2022.
On September 10, we are thrilled to welcome Yanis Fernandes, Director of Risk Management for Mohawk Industries, to visit UCA. He will share his 25 years of experience with UCA student clubs and serve as the keynote speaker at a luncheon for students, UCA faculty, and IRM professionals in the community.
RSVP to JOIN US on September 10
- Luncheon begins at 11:30am
- Student Club Gamma Iota Sigma meeting begins at 1:30pm
About UCA’s 2026 Risk Manager on Campus: Yanis Fernandes
Yanis has over 25 years of direct experience in the field of risk management. He is currently serving as Director of Risk for Mohawk Industries at their world headquarters in Calhoun, Georgia.
His first full-time position after college began with an insurance adjuster/private investigator for a small outfit in Atlanta. Yanis later joined a reinsurance brokerage firm, Minet Re, known today as Aon. In the last 20 years, Yanis has had the privilege of working in Corporate Risk in a variety of industries – Retail (Home Depot), Electric Utility (Entergy), Aerospace (Sierra Nevada/Sierra Space), and presently, Flooring (Mohawk Industries). In his career, Yanis has led the resolution of multiple complex claims, including his role in managing a significant component of Hurricane Katrina and Rita in 2005, as well as other complex Workers鈥� Comp, Auto, and General Liability claims. He managed the Owner Controlled Insurance Programs and related claims. Yanis also led major marketing campaigns including technical briefings to global markets for placement of a multi-mission space program.
Yanis earned his Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and the RIMS Certified Risk Management Professional (CRMP) designations. He continues to teach and learn while staying abreast of innovations and developing trends impacting the industry.
Born in the coastal city of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Yanis鈥� family moved to Zambia when he was of elementary school age, where he completed his high school. Yanis then seized an opportunity for higher education to study in the US after being accepted at Georgia State, where he obtained his BBA in Risk Management and MBA in International Business.
Residing in Cartersville, Georgia, with his family, Yanis enjoys travel, the outdoors, hikes, and participates in 5Ks, 10ks, and the occasional Half. His number one passion is the sport of Badminton, which he plays competitively, and as often as his schedule allows.
Yanis directly supports a dump site Ministry in Nakuru, Kenya, which tends to the food and housing needs of the residents who live in the landfill vicinity, with a focus on educational pathways for children, to move them out of the poverty cycle. Yanis works on Habitat build projects in the Atlanta metro area as a volunteer.