Prudential Retirement Creates Gibraltar Ventures

Prudential Retirement, a business unit of Prudential Financial, has launched Gibraltar Ventures as a separate organization focused on developing new investment ideas and business strategies.

Christine Marcks, president of Prudential Retirement, says Gibraltar Ventures “will build on Prudential Retirement’s significant successes over the past several years and complement our existing efforts to help more people prepare for their financial futures with confidence.”

Asked to elaborate on the work Gibraltar will do, Marcks shared a written statement with PLANSPONSOR:

“Prudential Retirement has a successful track record of growing our core portfolio of businesses and developing new sources of revenue ahead of market demand, as we did with IncomeFlex and Pension Risk Transfer strategies. Gibraltar Ventures will build on that foundation to explore unique solutions that will help overcome behavioral and financial obstacles to long term savings and retirement security for our clients. It’s likely that Gibraltar Ventures will also explore ideas beyond the current scope of our three core businesses. What’s different about Gibraltar Ventures is that we are creating a stand-alone organization under the direction of a senior leader who is responsible for both incubating and investing in potentially disruptive ideas. We expect Gibraltar Ventures to both challenge and complement our current innovation efforts.”

George Castineiras, head of Prudential Retirement’s defined benefit, defined contribution and nonqualified executive benefits business, has been tapped to lead Gibraltar Ventures. James McInnes, a member of the Total Retirement Solutions leadership team since 2009, will be promoted to head of Total Retirement Solutions, filing Castineiras’ previous role. Both Castineiras and McInnes will begin their new roles on January 1, 2015, and report directly to Marcks.

“I am pleased to launch Gibraltar Ventures under George’s leadership,” Marcks added. “George’s experience in this industry and passion for innovation make him a natural choice to launch this effort.”

The strategy for Total Retirement Solutions business will remain unchanged, according to Prudential.