Little did Ron Hayes dream when he worked as a high schoolteacher, manager of a property-casualty insurance agency and lateras a university athletic fundraiser that his skills would soperfectly suit him for a career in public risk management.

After his fundraising stint, when Mr. Hayes–incoming presidentfor the Public Risk Management Association–was offered the job ofrisk manager for the town of Sulphur, La., his first question was,“What's a risk manager?”

He spent four-and-a-half years“in the trenches,” learning about the exposures facing the city, aswell as how to mitigate and insure them. But it wasn't until hebegan his tenure as risk manager for the nearby Calcasieu ParishSchool Board in 1999 that he was able to meld all of thoseskills.