Prudential Fosters Advancement of Fintech Research by Joining CRAFT Industry Board at Stevens Institute of Technology
Initial research to focus on insurance technology, quantum computing and artificial intelligence
Prudential Financial, Inc. ((PRU) announced today it has joined the Industry Advisory Board of the Center for Research toward Advancing Financial Technologies (CRAFT) at Stevens Institute of Technology.
As a board member, Prudential will partner with leading research universities, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Connecticut, to address the opportunities and challenges in financial technology.
With its focus on expanding access to investing, insurance, and retirement security, Prudential sees an opportunity to bring a unique perspective to the center's mission of building partnerships.
"At the heart of everything we do at Prudential is the customer, and our ability to serve a consistent set of needs across different markets globally," said Bob Bastian, chief information and technology officer for Global Retirement and Insurance businesses at Prudential. "To meet those evolving needs, we continuously innovate financial technology to create the next generation of financial solutions to help people live better lives, longer."
"Our partnership with CRAFT demonstrates our ongoing commitment to research and innovation through connecting the financial services industry to leading colleges and universities," Bastian added.
Nariman Farvardin, president of Stevens, said Prudential will bring significant contributions to the industry board. "This partnership strengthens our academic-industry collaboration in financial technologies, particularly in emerging areas like quantum computing and AI. Prudential's expertise will create valuable opportunities for our students and faculty while advancing innovation in the fintech ecosystem," he said.
Prudential will be represented on the center's board by Ian Mehok, vice president of strategy for the company's Global Retirement and Insurance businesses. Early focuses of research for Prudential will include insurance and investing technology, quantum computing, cyber and data security, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
"CRAFT brings together the best and brightest minds from both industry and academia to create transformative momentum and leverage the latest financial technologies," said George Calhoun, Stevens School of Business professor and director of the Hanlon Financial Systems Center. Added Steve Yang, CRAFT director, "CRAFT is committed to building strong partnerships between academia and industry in the fintech space, and Prudential's involvement will amplify this mission — unlocking exciting new opportunities in the financial services and insurance sector."
CRAFT is an industry-university cooperative research organization, with an Industry Board that includes Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Charles Schwab, CME, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Park Avenue Finance, Vanguard Group, and Wells Fargo. Funded by the National Science Foundation, CRAFT convenes industry leaders and engaged students to explore the transformative potential of financial technologies, and advocates for a holistic approach to fintech innovation by integrating societal values into its initiatives.
About Prudential
Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU), a global financial services leader and premier active global investment manager with approximately $1.5 trillion in assets under management as of March 31, 2025, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential's diverse and talented employees help make lives better and create financial opportunity for more people by expanding access to investing, insurance, and retirement security. Prudential's iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for 150 years. For more information, please visit news.prudential.com.
Prudential, the Prudential logo, and the Rock symbol are service marks of Prudential Financial, Inc. and its related entities, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.
About CRAFT (Center for Research toward Advancing Financial Technologies)
CRAFT is the first fintech-focused industry-university cooperative research center funded by the National Science Foundation. CRAFT's founding universities, Stevens Institute of Technology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, are premier science and engineering institutions, long-established and experienced in research programs, with a complete portfolio of relevant scientific disciplines appropriate for the fintech focus. Led by these institutions, CRAFT is dedicated to advancing research and innovation in financial technologies to address contemporary challenges in the finance sector.
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a premier, private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey, overlooking the Manhattan skyline. Since our founding in 1870, technological innovation and entrepreneurship have been the hallmark of Stevens' education and research. Within the university's schools, Stevens prepares its more than 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students for an increasingly complex and technology-centric world. Our exceptional students collaborate closely with world-class faculty in an interdisciplinary, student-centric, entrepreneurial environment, readying them to fuel the innovation economy. Academic and research programs spanning finance, computing, engineering and the arts expand the frontiers of science and leverage technology to confront the most challenging problems of our time. Stevens is consistently ranked among the nation's leaders in ROI and career services and is in the top 1% nationally of colleges with the highest-paid graduates.
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