Barbara Koster Named Chief Information Officer at Prudential; Replaces Bill Friel.

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NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2004

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU) announced today that Barbara G. Koster has been named Chief Information Officer (CIO), succeeding William D. Friel, who will be leaving Prudential and retiring after sixteen years with the company. In this position, Koster will be responsible for overseeing the use of information technology companywide.

Koster has been serving as the CIO of Prudential Individual Life Insurance where she was responsible for a wide range of technological functions including distribution, policy administration, customer relationship, service delivery, financial systems and information security. In this role, Koster oversaw the award-winning LaunchPad program that provided state-of-the-art laptops and a suite of software to Prudential's field force giving them access to product and customer information on a single technology platform.

"Barbara has a proven track record in the technology arena. Throughout her career, she's developed highly effective technology solutions. That makes her an ideal candidate to serve as CIO for Prudential," said Robert Charles Golden, executive vice president and head of Prudential's Corporate Operations and Systems function.

Koster joined Prudential in 1995 as vice president of Policy Administration & Management Systems. Prior to joining Prudential, she held a variety of technology-related positions at Chase Manhattan Bank including president of Chase Access Services and vice president of Financial Systems and Information Services.

Koster received the "Women in Science and Technology" award in 1999 and was selected one of the Elite Eight by Insurance & Technology magazine in 2001. Koster is also a member of the board of directors of Prumerica Systems Ireland Ltd., a Prudential Financial subsidiary, and of ACORD, a standards body for the life insurance industry.

"During his eight-year tenure as CIO, Bill Friel built a premier Information Technology team recognized worldwide for its leading-edge, award-winning applications and technology infrastructure. Under his leadership, our technology leaders earned many awards raising Prudential's profile in the United States, Europe and Japan," said Golden.

Prudential Financial companies, with approximately $421 billion in total assets under management as of September 30, 2003, serve individual and institutional customers worldwide and include The Prudential Insurance Company of America, one of the largest life insurance companies in the U.S. These companies offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, property and casualty insurance, mutual funds, annuities, pension and retirement related services and administration, asset management, securities brokerage, banking and trust services, real estate brokerage franchises and relocation services. For more information, visit www.prudential.com.

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