By Pritam Biswas and Saeed Azhar
Dec 18 (Reuters) – Prudential Financial has placed the heads of some key units under the direct supervision of CEO Andrew Sullivan and appointed company veteran Phil Waldeck as the head of its U.S. businesses, in one of the biggest overhauls at the diversified financial services firm.
The restructuring aligns with the company’s efforts to bolster its individual businesses and comes about six months after its investment management arm merged its fixed-income and private-credit units to form a nearly $1 trillion platform.
The heads of Prudential’s U.S. businesses, emerging markets, the Japan Group and asset-management arm PGIM will be placed under Sullivan, who was appointed as CEO in December 2024.
“PGIM’s previous multi-manager model has higher operational costs. The move to simplify the business is targeting cost savings to boost its operating margin,” said Maoyuan Chen, equity analyst at Morningstar Research.
“Prudential targets an operating margin between 25% and 30% for the PGIM business, and the adjusted operating margin of PGIM was still below its target in the past five quarters.”
The company had named industry veteran Brad Hearn as CEO of its Japan business in October.
Waldeck, who will take charge effective February 2, has led PGIM’s multi-asset and quantitative solutions unit since 2021. He has also served in top roles across the firm’s division.
“His experience across Prudential’s businesses, coupled with his ability to deliver meaningful outcomes, will be essential as we continue to build momentum in our U.S. businesses,” Sullivan said in a statement.
Prudential said as part of the restructuring, Caroline Feeney, its global head of retirement and insurance, will leave the company.
The company’s shares are marginally lower this year, underperforming the broader S&P 500 index, which has gained about 15%.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
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