Robert Sanders Jr. (BS ’02) is founder and president of Preferred Specialty, LLC, an excess and surplus lines wholesaler in Columbia. Sanders earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a double major in marketing and insurance and risk management from the Moore School. He is a lifelong native to Columbia, is very active in the community and continues to give back to the Moore School by guest lecturing, mentoring and providing internship opportunities to our students.
Sanders has served on the National Board of the Wholesale Specialty Insurance Association, was named 2015 Industry Person of the Year by the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of South Carolina, and was featured in Insurance Business America’s Young Guns edition in 2014. He was also recognized this year in The State newspaper’s “20 under 40” for his outstanding leadership, professionally and in the community.
Outside of the office, Sanders coaches his daughters’ church basketball teams and is a staunch supporter of JDRF (formerly known as Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) and serves on its executive board. Each year, Preferred Specialty joins in the fight to end Type 1 Diabetes by sponsoring one of the Top Corporate Walk Teams for the JDRF One Walk in honor of Sanders’ wife Rachel.