Dive Brief:
- Prudential Financial, one of the largest life insurance companies in the U.S., announced the appointment of Stacey Goodman as its new Chief Information Officer on Monday. She starts on July 15.
- Goodman left the CIO post at Freddie Mac to succeed Barbara Koster, who retired in December after 23 years with the Newark, New Jersey-based financial services company.
- Goodman's track record of guiding "complex, global companies through transformation to become leaders in their fields," was key to her selection, said Prudential Vice Chair Robert Falzon in the announcement.
Dive Insight:
For Prudential, which operates in a highly-regulated space, Goodman delivers a valuable mix of backgrounds: She led teams in the private sector — including UBS and Bank of America — and held a public-sector-facing role, through her participation in the Department of Treasury's Financial Research Advisory Committee.
Falzon, a former Chief Financial Officer at Prudential who became Vice Chair at the end of last year, praised the exec for her customer-centric approach to technology.
With the appointment, Prudential can rely on her experience in deploying new tech products. As CIO of financial holding company CIT, she helped build out a digital bank platform that reportedly boosted deposits three-fold from 2012 to 2016.
Financial institutions with over $100 billion in assets under management (AUM) are projected to expand their technology investments over the coming years, according to one report from UBS Evidence Lab. Prudential clears that hurdle easily with $1.4 trillion AUM, according to its website.
The insurance industry is looking more closely at how updated its tech platforms are. Per a Deloitte report, seven in 10 insurance carriers are currently using cloud in their business today. Three-quarters of insurers agreed in 2017 that adopting InsurTech solutions was key to adapting to market needs.
