Ruth Porat | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Porat in 2016 | |
| Born | 1957 (age 67–68) |
| Education | |
| Title | President and Chief Investment Officer ofGoogle andAlphabet |
| Spouse | Anthony Paduano |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Marc Porat (brother) |
Ruth Porat (born 1957[2]) is a British-American business executive who is the president and chief investment officer ofAlphabet and its subsidiaryGoogle LLC and prior to that was thechief financial officer of the same companies from 2015 to 2024.[3][4][5] Prior to joiningGoogle, Porat was the executive vice president & chief financial officer ofMorgan Stanley from January 2010 to May 2015.[6]
In 2024, Porat was listed as the 12thmost powerful woman in the world byForbes,[5] and sixth onFortune's Most Powerful Women list.[7]
Porat was born to aJewish family[8] inSale, Cheshire, England,[9] the daughter of Dan and Frieda Porat. Her mother was born inMandatory Palestine, and her father fledVienna onKristallnacht and found his way to Mandatory Palestine, enlisted in the British Army as a teenager[10] and later fought in the1948 Arab–Israeli War.[11][12] Her father's testimony about survivingNazi German persecution of Jews was taken by theUSC Shoah Foundation Institute in 1996.[13] She has a brother,Marc Porat, who foundedGeneral Magic.[14]
Porat moved at a young age toCambridge, Massachusetts, where her father was a research fellow in the physics department atHarvard University. His visa was sponsored byJohn F. Kennedy, then a U.S. Senator.[15] A byproduct of her father's research wasion implantation, which found application in the development of thesemiconductor.[10] Three years later, her father relocated the family toPalo Alto, California, where he worked atStanford University'sSLAC National Accelerator Laboratory for 26 years.[16][17] AtSLAC he developed aspark chamberspectrometer used in the discovery ofsubatomic particles for which SLAC DirectorBurton Richter was awarded theNobel Prize in Physics in 1976.[18][19] He worked closely withNobel Prize-laureateMelvin Schwartz andStanley Wojcicki, father of Porat's future colleagueSusan Wojcicki.[20][21]
Porat holds aB.A. in economics and international relations fromStanford University, aM.Sc. inindustrial relations from theLondon School of Economics, and aM.B.A. with distinction from theWharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.[22]
Porat began her career atMorgan Stanley in 1987 and left in 1993 to follow Morgan Stanley presidentRobert F. Greenhill toSmith Barney[23] and returned to Morgan Stanley in 1996. Before becoming CFO, she served as vice chairman of investment banking from September 2003 to December 2009 and the global head of the Financial Institutions Group from September 2006 to December 2009. She was previously co-head of technology investment banking and worked for Morgan Stanley in London.[9] While a banker at Morgan Stanley, she was credited with creating the European debt financing that savedAmazon from collapse during thedot-com melt down in 2000.[24][25] Her financial partner during theDot-com bubble wasMary Meeker, the godmother to Porat's three children.[23] In a 2014,Politico published an articled titled "Porat: The Most Powerful Woman On Wall Street".[26]
During the2008 financial crisis, Porat led the Morgan Stanley team advising theUnited States Department of the Treasury regardingFannie Mae andFreddie Mac, and theNew York Federal Reserve Bank with respect toAIG.[27][28] In May 2011, she presented to theBretton Woods Committee hosted by theInternational Monetary Fund inWashington, D.C., on post-crisis reform and financial legislation, and to theWorld Economic Forum inDavos in 2013 on "trust" levels within and of the financial sector.[29][30][31]
In 2013, it was reported that PresidentBarack Obama would nominate Porat as the nextDeputy Secretary of the Treasury.[32] However, it was reported later byBloomberg News andThe New York Times that Porat had contacted White House officials to withdraw her name from consideration because of improving conditions at Morgan Stanley and the acrimonious confirmation process inflicted upon then Treasury Secretary-nomineeJack Lew.[33][34]
Porat's career was analyzed in theMcKinsey & Company study "How Remarkable Women Lead".[35] She was named "Best Financial Institutions CFO" in a poll conducted byInstitutional Investor for its "2014 All-America Executive Team".[36]
On March 24, 2015, it was announced that Porat would joinGoogle as its new CFO as of May 26, 2015.[3]Bloomberg Business reported that her hiring deal amounted to $70 million.[37] She has been credited with boosting Google's share price by reorganizing the company and imposing financial discipline.[38] For the "2018 All America Executive Team", she was named "Best Internet CFO" byInstitutional Investor.[39] Porat spoke at theFortune Most Powerful Women Summit inDana Point, California, on October 19, 2016, in her capacity as CFO ofAlphabet Inc. andGoogle.[40] AtGoogle, in addition to Finance, Porat also has Business Operations, Real Estate and Work Place Services reporting to her. She was paid $50 million in 2020,[41] $47 million in 2018, and $39 million in 2016.[42]
In July 2023, Porat was promoted to the newly created role of president andchief investment officer of Alphabet and Google starting from September 1, 2023. Her responsibilities include overseeing the company's "Other Bets" ventures, its private equity portfolios, and its investments in real estate, infrastructure and data centers.[43]
On August 21, 2025, she gave the Friday keynote speech at the annual Jackson Hole Conference convened by theFederal Reserve Bank.[44] In June, 2025, Porat gave a speech atASCO on Google AI's advancements in cancer research.[45]
Porat supportedHillary Clinton for president in 2008 and 2016, hosting fundraisers for her at the Dakota in New York City.[55]
In 2011, Porat expressed her support for increased taxes on the wealthy and declared on the topic of significant spending decreases that "we cannot cut our way to greatness".[56]
In March 2025, San Francisco MayorDaniel Lurie named Porat as co-chair of "The Partnership for San Francisco" alongsideLaurene Powell Jobs.[57]
Porat has been married to Anthony Paduano, a partner in the law firm Paduano & Weintraub, since 1983.[11] Porat is a survivor ofbreast cancer.[58]
In September 2015, Porat reportedly paid $30 million for a house inPalo Alto.[17] In 2016, she gave the commencement address for graduates of theWharton School.[59]
In the 2011HBO movieToo Big to Fail, Porat is played by Jennifer van Dyck.[60]
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