Thomas R. Watjen (born c. 1955) is an American businessman. He is the former chairman and chief executive officer of

Unum Unum Group is an American insurance company headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Founded as Union Mutual in 1848 and known as UnumProvident from 1999-2007, the company is part of the Fortune 500. Unum Group was created by the 1999 merger of ...

Early life

Watjen was born circa 1955. He graduated from the

Virginia Military Institute The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is a public senior military college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1839 as America's first state military college and is the oldest public senior military college in the U.S. In k ...

, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1976, and he earned a master in business administration from the

University of Virginia Darden School of Business The Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration (branded as the Darden School of Business) is the graduate business school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. The school offers ...

in 1981.

Career

Watjen first worked at

Aetna Aetna Inc. ( ) is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

, followed by

Conning & Company Conning is a global investment management firm serving the insurance industry. Conning supports institutional investors, including pension plans, with investment and asset management products, risk modeling software, and industry research. Founde ...

. He was a managing director of

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

from 1987 to 1994. Watjen served as the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Provident Companies from 1994 to 1999, when it merged with Unum. He succeeded

J. Harold Chandler J, or j, is the tenth letter of the English alphabet. J may also refer to: * Palatal approximant in the International Phonetic Alphabet * J, Cyrillic letter Je Astronomy * J, a provisional designation prefix for some objects discovered bet ...

as the chief executive officer of

in 2003, and he served until 2015. He was also the chairman from 2015 to 2017. Watjen has served on the board of directors of

SunTrust Banks SunTrust Banks, Inc. was an American bank holding company with SunTrust Bank as its largest subsidiary and assets of US$199 billion as of March 31, 2018. The bank's most direct corporate parent was established in 1891 in Atlanta, where it was h ...

since April 2010. He has also served on the board of

Prudential plc Prudential plc is a British-domiciled Multinational corporation, multinational insurance and asset management company headquartered in London and Hong Kong. It was founded in London in May 1848 to provide loans to professional and working peop ...

since July 2017.

References

Living people 1950s births Virginia Military Institute alumni University of Virginia Darden School of Business alumni American chief executives American chairpersons of corporations SunTrust Banks people Prudential plc people {{US-business-bio-1950s-stub