Ken Poliziani, Chief Marketing Officer, PGIM
Institutional InvestorOctober 19, 2026
Institutional Investor Chief Marketer Institute is recognizing three Distinction Award winners for their stewardship, communication, and transformation. Ken Poliziani, Chief Marketing Officer at PGIM, sat down with Institutional Investor to discuss his career, including II’s David Braham, Executive Director, Senior Executive Director, Head of Thought Leadership & Market Intelligence, and Julie Segal, Editor of Institutional Investor Magazine.
Over his eight years at PGIM, Ken has maximized the shrinking world. At the same time that clients’ budgets have compressed, social media and AI have created a more competitive landscape, and retail and institutional investment have converged. Under his leadership, his team has set up an ambassador program to support current and prospective employees, a message into a quick story via targeted ads, and go from an affiliate model to a centralized model, consolidating operational, compliance, and distribution functions into one core hub.
Ken is a graduate of Penn State University, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Marketing. Prior to PGIM, he spent more than four years at J.P. Morgan Asset Management as Director of Marketing Programs, then more than seven years as CMO of Institutional for the Americas.
From PGIM’s New Jersey headquarters, Ken oversees the brand messaging and marketing of the $1.4 trillion firm. Since he joined in April of 2018, he has built strategic and integrated marketing plans across business lines for paid media, conferences and sponsorships, thought leadership, digital, social media, and marketing analytics.
With II, he shared how he defines success, what the pandemic has done to the firm’s marketing strategy, spending, and how asset managers can distinguish themselves.
The following is edited for length and clarity.
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It would be great to have you set the stage in terms of background to the approach and the support that it gets internally.
This year was a big year: We went from an affiliate model to a centralized model, and it allowed us to think more holistically, internally. The second piece was, how do we really differentiate ourselves in the market and sea of sameness? We wanted to make sure we were thinking about the needs and the problems our clients were having, but also, how do we think about challenges across different groups?
The integration of public and private credit allows us to take advantage of our distinction in the marketplace. We do a lot of private deals; on the private side, you have this warehouse of data and knowledge that you’re able to tap into.
When people’s attention span has gone down to 30 seconds, how do you work out a message?
It’s staying on pulse, so what’s on clients’ minds and given it’s a long-term business, making sure people understand different nuances of a complex topic in a very simplistic way. I think it’s about keeping it on the education element, understanding the risk: What kind of questions should we be asking, to eliminate some of those fears? Is it too risky? Should we be out of the asset class?
The rise of social media has been huge in the last decade. People don’t have patience, investors want to be able to tell a story very quickly, and we want to be quick to market given the fact that things weren’t moving so quickly, putting in place an ambassador program. We also shifted our spend on social media to targeted paid panels and podcasts and keeping those interesting and engaging; 20 minutes max seems to be the sweet spots.
I do still feel that the piece that has risen for us over the post-pandemic period is the return of live events: Because of their budget constraints, people are going more to conferences and events because they can do more effectively with managers, so that’s something we still as a consistent vehicle.
Do you feel the event industry has changed than 20 years ago?
It really has changed; I feel that the piece that has risen for us over the post-pandemic period, which is different than the pre-pandemic period, is the return of live events: Because of their budget constraints, people are going more to conferences and events because they can do more effectively with managers, so that’s something we still as a consistent vehicle.
The engagement is different. As the sophistication of tools has come about, the delivery is better. I still think people want to hear the validation, and the good, bad, and ugly in some of the challenges in their portfolios.
Talk about your story telling process and the platforms: How do you get your stories in a way? How do you shape your story so to speak?
From a marketing side, it’s using AI to navigate some of the themes and challenges; then it’s talking back to some of the advisors: Have we solutioned well? (That’s when we turn it over to marketing.) It’s going in with our clients across the globe and asking them, what is their personality? When you open it up, going in and questioning them and challenging and getting the insight from clients was the key for us in every story.
We also started a series – it’s not public, but we do it for a newsletter – called Vantage Point, and we interview a CIO because people want to hear a problem and a solution in a case study. First, it’s an asset manager.
How has marketing moved into the partnership role?
It’s more around the customization and personalization: It might be very different around Taft-Hartley, versus a foundation and endowment; it’s what their interests are, how they interact online, and the right and relevant information.
What is the biggest thing that you think is going to happen in the next 10 years?
You’re seeing the convergence of public and private markets; you’re seeing retail and institutional becoming closer and closer together now that you have the integration of alternatives.
The question becomes, “Are we going to be more of a self-service?” Just like we use Travelocity, will it pull from asset managers? Will it disintermediate the consultant role? I see investors being much, much more informed to help them meet their goals.
I miss travel agents: It’s hard work.
We’re looking at it from our generational lens, whereas the younger generation is more comfortable with this space. We’re seeing reverse mentoring where the juniors are teaching seniors to question and challenge the AI information, so where’s the advice coming from?
I’m not saying it’ll get down to a doctor or a dentist (They’re using this program, as well); you’ll still have validation from a human, but you’ll be more educated in this process than before: Scary!
When you look back on your career, what were some interesting turning points?
When I started, there were a lot more players, but you’ve seen them pare down the number of asset managers used; being part of a larger firm that has the benefit of pension risk transfer allows us to understand the market and develop the solutions for our clients can solve any problem that they’re having, so I feel lucky to be part of a larger organization.
When you look across it, technology is the big distinction: You can look at that in terms of the rise of passive funds and the way you need to counteract; you can look at the rise of social media challenges. People who can show up in those challenging times – and stay on course for the cycle – create value for the clients and the firms. I think that’s the opportunity for us and clients to grow.
This piece has been edited for length and clarity.
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