Joan Cleveland is Senior Vice President, Business Development, Individual Life Insurance at Prudential. She is responsible for identifying and implementing opportunities within new markets to expand life insurance distribution and product offerings. She is currently building out independent distribution for Prudential of Mexico and has led the development of an Internet-based term product that employs a real-time simplified issue underwriting process, enabling individuals to buy life insurance in an amount that fits within their monthly budget.

From a marketing perspective, Cleveland has created a robust program to deliver financial services to the special needs community and is researching and identifying financial literacy opportunities in the Gen Y community and women’s market. In addition, she has responsibility for all proactive and reactive customer retention activities for Prudential’s nine million plus individual life policyholders. To round out her Business Development department, she also leads a unit that optimizes direct sales opportunities and campaigns along with building and managing strategic affinity programs for life policy holders.

Prior to Cleveland’s move to Prudential Financial, she was Senior Vice President, National Sales Leader at Genworth Financial (previously GE Financial). She began her career with an M Financial member firm and took that valuable field experience into the home office environment. After successfully managing producer group distribution at Security Life of Denver, she moved to New York as Managing Director, Marketing for Van Eck Global, a boutique mutual fund company. Cleveland then transitioned to AXA Financial to develop their high-end, internal producer group and managed their agent-owned reinsurance company. As GE Financial began building its reputation as one of the powerhouses in the industry, she was tapped to bring her leadership skills to the distribution of life, annuity and long-term care insurance products to the brokerage and producer group markets. Cleveland was a member of the leadership team when Genworth Financial went public, spinning off from General Electric/GE Financial.

Throughout her career, Cleveland has provided her expertise and creativity to distribution, marketing and product development for the benefit of the consumer, the producer and the company. She leverages her experience in the field to bridge the home office with their customers through product development advocacy, advanced marketing, new business and policyholder services.

Cleveland is active in multiple industry committees within AALU and LIMRA, and holds numerous securities licenses. She holds a B.S. in Business Administration as well as the Chartered Life Underwriter, Chartered Financial Consultant, Registered Employee Benefits Consultant and Certified Long-term Care Professional designations. She is a Board Member of Prudential's Political Action Committee and has most recently been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Bankers Insurance Association (ABIA).