The making of a corporate executive: Charles Chaplin gets a 'piece of the rock' as treasurer at Prudential

Black Enterprise, June, 1996 by Cassandra Hayes

When Chuck Chaplin joined the Prudential Mortgage Capital Co. in 1983, he planned to stay a few years, learn the ropes and move on. Having worked three years as a city planner with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Chaplin saw a limited, yet rewarding opportunity to succeed in real estate investment with the industry leader, Prudential.

At the time, the Philadelphia native didn't realize how a little technical know-how and a lot of perseverance would fuel the engine for his rise to vice president and treasurer of the nation's largest life insurance company.

When famed retailer R.H. Macy's approached Prudential in 1986 for mortgage financing for a $3.7 billion leveraged buyout, the 29-year-old Chaplin was asked to work out the details of the deal.

An associate at the time, he was one of the few loan officers adept at computers and available to work on the project over the Christmas holiday. He was willing to crunch the numbers for a deal that looked--to his superiors--like a lot of work for little payout.

"I worked on it over the weekend," says Chaplin, now 39. "I analyzed the stakes for Prudential, weighing the store's image and trying to determine what would be the alternative for the real estate if Macy's went belly-up." In one of the largest private financings ever put together, Newark, N.J.-based Prudential agreed to loan Macy's $800 million--providing most of the real estate financing needed for the transaction.

The successful deal kicked Chaplin's career into overdrive. The 15-year term loan was repaid in eight years when Macy's was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1994. Prudential walked away with a 10% average return. Such a monumental event catapulted Chaplin from an associate to director to regional vice president. In time Chaplin grew out of his job. "I discussed with my bosses the best ways for me to become a well-rounded executive," says Chaplin.

He was directed toward the treasurer's department, an area in which he had little expertise. But he had a master's degree in city and regional planning from Harvard and a B.A. in psychology from Rutgers University, and he learned fast. In 1992, he took the position as vice president and assistant treasurer at the parent company, where he gained accounting and finance experience.

Named vice president and treasurer in December, Chaplin is now entrusted with managing assets of the nation's number two insurance company, which boasts over 50 million customers, $212 billion in assets and revenues that topped $30 billion in 1995.

While the view from above may be good, it's even better from below now that Chaplin sits in the seat traditionally reserved for those being groomed for senior executive positions. He's the first African American in Prudential's history to hold the post. Over the past 20 years, treasurers have stayed three- to five-year terms and then gone on to head one of the insurance and financial giant's business units. There's no reason why that tradition should stop now.

Till then, Chaplin must pull his weight during the tough times ahead as Prudential goes through a major company-wide reorganization in an effort to trim $800 million in expenses. Part of that task will include increasing the firm's money management products and reviving the firm's image in light of future downsizing and the restructuring of its seven business units. As his track record shows, it's just such challenges that Chuck Chaplin takes in stride.