November 19, 2008 09:00 AM Eastern Time 

Prudential CIO Barbara Koster Named CIO of the Year at the Executive Council 2008 New York ‘Ten Awards’

NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Barbara Koster, chief information officer at Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), has been named CIO of The Year by the Executive Council at its sixth annual New York Ten Awards™, which recognizes business leadership and innovation.

“We are extremely proud of Barbara. Her technical expertise coupled with her business knowledge and keen management skills have been tremendous assets to Prudential. And what's equally impressive about Barbara is her ability to inspire her team to achieve excellence”

“We are extremely proud of Barbara. Her technical expertise coupled with her business knowledge and keen management skills have been tremendous assets to Prudential. And what's equally impressive about Barbara is her ability to inspire her team to achieve excellence," said Robert C. Golden, executive vice president and head of Corporate Operations and Systems at Prudential.

The Ten Awards winners were decided from open nominations submitted to the Executive Council of New York. Hundreds of nominations were screened and evaluated by a panel of judges comprised of prominent journalists from New York-based local and national business media outlets, and were evaluated based on the individual’s contributions to his or her organization’s objectives and leadership; the organization’s impact on business innovation, both in New York and nationally; and the individual’s industry leadership beyond his or her organization.

The CIO of The Year award was presented at the Ten Awards Gala at Cipriani Wall Street. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., vice chair and chief prosecuting attorney with Riverkeeper, and New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly delivered keynote addresses. The Executive Council’s Ten Awards is a selection of ten companies and individuals in the greater New York business community that display extraordinary innovation and leadership in their industry and beyond.

The Executive Council is New York’s premier business forum for senior executives, their advisors and capital markets professionals. Through its member base of 3,500 New York metro business leaders, the organization has built a reputation for highly acclaimed conferences, executive education programs and member-hosted gatherings that focus on critical business and leadership issues at the forefront of corporate America today. The Executive Council Corporate Members range from American Express, IBM and Microsoft to Sprint, Cushman & Wakefield, and McKinsey & Co. as well as many other large and emerging growth companies. For more information on the Ten Awards and the Executive Council of New York, please visit www.execcouncil.org.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader with approximately $602 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2008, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Leveraging its heritage of life insurance and asset management expertise, Prudential is focused on helping approximately 50 million individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth. The company’s well-known Rock symbol is an icon of strength, stability, expertise and innovation that has stood the test of time. Prudential's businesses offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds, investment management, and real estate services. For more information, please visit http://www.news.prudential.com.