Institute for Public Relations

Mike Fernandez is Corporate Vice President, Corporate Affairs, for Cargill, a private company that is an international producer and marketer of food , agricultural, financial and industrial products and services.

Previously, Fernandez was vice president for public affairs at State Farm Insurance, and he was senior vice president of corporate affairs and chief communications officer for ConAgra Foods, Inc.

Earlier in his career, Mike served as senior vice president of public affairs at CIGNA Corporation, where he led that company’s public relations, industry affairs, community relations, employee communications, government relations and investor relations.

From 1996 to 2000, Fernandez was vice president of public relations at U S WEST and a member of the company’s senior leadership team. He directed all public relations activities and oversaw product and brand publicity, the company’s Olympic Games sponsorship and the U S WEST Foundation. Prior to joining U S WEST, Fernandez worked for nine years at Eastman Kodak Company in various public relations and marketing assignments.

Fernandez and his teams at CIGNA, U S WEST and Kodak earned top honors from the Public Relations Society of America, the International Association of Business Communicators, and the American Marketing Association, among others.

In 1999, he was named “PR All Star” for strategic communications by Inside PR magazine.

Fernandez earned a B.A. with honors in government in 1978 and an M.S. in accounting in 1983, both from Georgetown University.