(Bloomberg) — PGIM appointed Morgan Stanley’s Jacques Chappuis as chief executive officer to succeed David Hunt, who’s leaving after 13 years in the job.

Chappuis will take the helm of the Prudential Financial Inc. asset management unit as of May 1, 2025, the firm said in a statement. He’ll report to Andrew Sullivan, executive vice president and head of Prudential’s international businesses and global investment management.

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Chappuis will take over the business, which manages $1.4 trillion across public and private markets, at a time when asset management has become a key differentiator for US life insurers. 

Traditional players such as Prudential and MetLife Inc. are seeking to boost returns at their investment arms to remain competitive with their retirement and savings products. This has become critical in recent years amid an intensifying rivalry with their private equity-owned counterparts, which have benefited from the origination capabilities and investment returns of their owners.

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The strategy translates into a race for scale in alternative investments, in part through mergers and acquisitions. PGIM, which originates an average of about $30 billion a year in the private market, is looking for deals to boost such assets by more than 50% to $500 billion in the next five years. 

The bulk of PGIM’s assets remains invested in public markets. Through September, 62% of its assets were invested in public fixed income strategies, while only 18% were in private credit, alternatives and real estate strategies.

Chappuis spent the past eight years at Morgan Stanley, where he was most recently co-head of the investment management business. He has also worked for Carlyle Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc.

Hunt, who took over the role in 2011, drove the more-than-twofold growth of PGIM’s assets under management. He initiated the firm’s current push in alternative strategies, overseeing the acquisition of Montana Capital Partners in 2021, and consolidated the firm’s private-market efforts last year with a new division.

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