Yanela Frias, who holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Rutgers University–Newark and an MBA from the Rutgers Business School, was the first woman to be named CFO of Prudential Financial, which has deep ties to the university. In May, she delivered the business school’s MBA and Graduate Program Convocation address in Newark.
When Yanela Frias, executive vice president and CFO of Prudential Financial, looks out her office window from the company’s headquarters in downtown Newark, she can see the Golden Dome Athletic Center and other landmarks of the campus where her higher educational journey began.
Her first accounting class at Rutgers University–Newark is where everything clicked together for her.
“I just remember thinking ‘Wow, I really get this—it makes so much sense to me,’” said Frias NCAS’93, RBS’00. “I'm a very logical person, and accounting just really resonated with me. That’s the one class I really remember because the light bulb went off.”
Her experience as an undergraduate inspired her to enroll in the Rutgers Business School in Newark for a graduate degree.
“The entire business curriculum reinforced my interest in business,” she said. “I knew, by the time I graduated, that I'd go back for an MBA because I wanted a broader experience and skill set than just accounting.”
Frias built on her Rutgers degrees and experience with Prudential, where she has spent most of her career, joining the company in 1997, prior to earning her Rutgers Business School MBA in 2000. After moving up and rising through a number of executive positions, she was named to the executive vice president and CFO role in March 2024. She is the first woman in the company’s 150-year history to hold that role.

An Inspiration for New Graduates
This year, she returned to the campus where she earned her degrees to give the keynote speech at the Rutgers Business School graduate convocation in May.
Although Frias has spent her entire career speaking to groups of investors, peers, and employees, she said speaking to the graduating students at New Jersey Performing Arts Center was a completely different experience.
“It’s a huge life event and transition period and it is quite meaningful,” Frias said before the ceremony. “You just hope that you can provide a couple of bits of wisdom and advice and encouragement as they set off on their journey. I’m a little bit nervous because of that.”
But nerves, challenges, and facing fears are key to growth, Frias told the graduates on May 20. Their lessons, she said, have only just begun.
“I encourage you all to get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Frias said. “Take risks. Be willing to stumble at first. Make mistakes, and learn and grow from them.”
Frias told the graduates about challenges she faced early in life. She was born in Cuba and emigrated to the United States with her family when she was 8 years old and had not begun to learn English.
“That experience planted an early lesson that would shape the rest of my life: growth comes from discomfort,” she said. “And over time, you realize that getting comfortable with being uncomfortable can be a source of strength—something you continue to draw on in life.”
Frias grew up in North Bergen in a predominantly Cuban community and said she didn’t experience true diversity until enrolling at Rutgers–Newark.
“You had people from all different backgrounds there, including international students,” she said. “It was so different from the world I’d known, and I had never had that experience. I had not traveled much up to that point, so that’s where I was really exposed. It’s such a valuable experience in life because it does teach you that the world is a really big place and there’s a lot of different people and they’re all fascinating in their own way.”
When pondering her time at Rutgers, Frias said it’s a story about Newark, a city she called her “home ground.” Because she spent her student years and nearly her entire career in the city, sometimes those worlds merge.
“Take McGovern’s, for example,” she told the graduates, speaking of the iconic Newark pub. “I spent many nights there as a student, and it’s still my favorite spot to celebrate big wins with my team.”
Frias has taken on many roles at Prudential, challenging herself on purpose, when she found herself feeling “comfortable” in any one job. She said she hasn’t held the same position there for more than three years since she started decades ago, and she wanted Rutgers graduates to take something away from that.
“Remember to keep learning, to keep growing, and to cherish those moments of discomfort,” she told graduates in her closing comments.
“Pru-RU”

The connections between Rutgers and Prudential go far beyond Frias’s close connection to the university. She is one of more than one thousand Rutgers alumni who work at Prudential.
Fifteen years ago, Prudential established the Prudential-Rutgers Connection (often shortened to “Pru-RU”). The partnership supports alumni at the company and provides opportunities for them to engage with the university, enhance their professional development, and nurture the relationship between the institutions. Rutgers has partnered with the Pru-RU Connection group on annual signature events convening alumni, Rutgers and Prudential leadership, and members of the Rutgers community.
Prudential has been a generous supporter of the university in numerous ways, including a $10 million commitment in 2019 to the Honors Living-Learning Community at Rutgers–Newark and $3 million in 2008 to establish the Prudential Chair in Business at Rutgers Business School. More recently, Prudential in 2024 announced a partnership with Rutgers’ athletic programs that includes sponsorships and financial counseling for student-athletes.
Frias said she is excited about the strong relationships Prudential has with her alma mater and also the larger community of Newark.
“In this new role here at Prudential, I’m starting to get more engaged now with the community,” she said.
To view Frias’s convocation speech, watch the Rutgers Business School MBA and Graduate Program 2025 Convocation on YouTube. Her introduction begins at the 24:55 time marker.

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