PGIM is the global asset management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU). In 41 offices across 19 countries, our more than 1,450 investment professionals serve both retail and institutional clients around the world.
As a leading global asset manager, with $1.4 trillion in assets under management1, PGIM is built on a foundation of strength, stability, and disciplined risk management. Our multi-affiliate model allows us to deliver specialized expertise across key asset classes with a focused investment approach. This gives our clients a diversified suite of investment strategies and solutions with global depth and scale across public and private asset classes, including fixed income, equities, real estate, private credit, and other alternatives. For more information, visit pgim.com.
Seema Venugopal, Director, HR Business Partner
Seema Venugopal is a Director, HR Business Partner with PGIM (The global asset management business of Prudential Financial, Inc). She is the HR Lead for the PGIM Tampa office and the HR Business partner for PGIM Global Services. In her role, Seema provides HR leadership and partners with senior leaders to execute HR strategies, initiatives, and business plans.
Prior to PGIM, Seema was with Raymond James Financial, where she was the HR Business Partner for the Technology organization providing expertise in employee relations, talent acquisition, succession planning, performance management and organizational design and development. She had also worked for Johnson & Johnson as a Talent acquisition consultant.
Seema earned her Bachelor’s degree in Physics and an MBA in Human Resources from India before moving to Tampa where she has been living for the past 19 years.
PGIM announced its expansion to Tampa a couple of years ago. Why was Tampa ultimately selected?
PGIM is the global asset management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. In 41 offices across 18 countries, our more than 1,400 investment professionals serve both retail and institutional clients around the world. Tampa was selected for its fast-growing, mid-cost market with access to a talent pool that draws from nearly 100 colleges in the southeastern U.S. Opening this office, in addition to our existing PGIM locations, will help to attract and hire new talent, predominantly within our operations and technology teams, to keep pace with PGIM’s growth.
Now that you’ve settled into your office space in Midtown Tampa, tell us how things are going with finding talent and ramping up the local office.
We’ve made remarkable progress in sourcing both early talent and experienced hires, filling close to 50 positions to date, which speaks to the incredibly appealing physical location of our office in the vibrant city of Tampa. Our employees love our brand-new office and appreciate its location in the beautiful Midtown area that is walkable to many shops and restaurants. We’ve also developed deep partnerships with local universities, such as The University of South Florida, University of Tampa, and Florida A&M University, to attract incredible talent for our internship and graduate programs and full-time positions. We are keen to build awareness of PGIM with these institutions and other organizations to source new talent, as we are proud to be a Best Place to Work in Money Management by Pensions and Investments for four years and counting, recognizing our deep commitment to our employees and an inclusive workplace culture. I welcome you to learn more about PGIM with this great video!
What in your view are PGIM’s greatest opportunities for growth in the short term, and the longer term?
Recruiting top talent is essential to our short- and long-term growth strategy for PGIM. We are actively engaged with local students, early-career, and skilled professionals in the area. Our employees in Tampa are powering PGIM’s innovation efforts all over the world from this great city, directly contributing to PGIM’s vision of helping people build long-term wealth and retirement security. It’s not all business-focused, though. PGIM aims to further embed itself into the community in which our people live and work by supporting local nonprofits and businesses. Most recently, we worked with Metropolitan Ministries to support victims of Hurricane Milton.
When you’re talking to friends or colleagues from outside the market, what do you tell them about the Tampa Bay market?
As someone who moved from India to Tampa, I didn’t expect to make this my permanent home. However, the city is overflowing with opportunity. It’s why my family and I have stayed for nearly two decades already. At PGIM, we expect to have about 150 people in the Tampa office over the next few years from local talent, to transplants like myself. I’ve loved watching this city grow and thrive. The strong sense of community and diversity is incredible. It’s not hard to build your own sense of community here and learn from those who are different from you. It really has everything – especially the warm sunshine that always keeps me in a good mood. I also appreciate the city’s cosmopolitan feel and international airport, which makes living in – and loving Tampa – easy. I can go nearly everywhere via the Tampa airport, but despite going on trips, I’m always excited to come back home to Tampa.
