Thomas Carroll, who announced his retirement in June as chief auditor at Prudential Financial Inc. and had a brush with celebrity through his 14-year relationship with actress Stefanie Powers, has died. He was 72.

He died on Aug. 12, according to a notice on the website of Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in New York. No details were provided.

In 2001, during Carroll’s 15-year tenure as chief auditor and senior vice president, Newark, New Jersey-based Prudential became a public company following 125 years of ownership by policyholders.

He “was instrumental in supporting the demutualization of Prudential and ensuring that we manage our company in a manner consistent with what our customers and shareholders expect,” Vice Chairman Mark Grier said in the announcement of Carroll’s retirement. Prudential is the second-largest U.S. life insurer by assets behind MetLife Inc.

Carroll joined Prudential in 1999 from Bankers Trust Co., where he had been general auditor, managing director and partner. He was global chief auditor and a managing director at Credit Suisse First Boston from 1991 to 1996. He began his career in 1965 at the accounting firm that today is KPMG LLP, according to a news release announcing his move to Prudential.

Manhattan Meeting

It was in 2000 that he met Powers at a benefit concert held at an apartment on New York’s West Side where she was among the singers who performed, according to her 2010 memoir, “One From the Hart.” Powers, a television star since the 1960s, is best known for “Hart to Hart,” which aired from 1979 to 1984. In it, she and actor Robert Wagner portrayed glamorously wealthy husband-and-wife amateur detectives.

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