Ruth Porat | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Porat in 2016 | |
| Born | 1957 (age 67–68) |
| Nationality | British, American[1] |
| 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 wasChief 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 2023, 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 fled Vienna 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 surviving theHolocaust was taken by theUSC Shoah Foundation Institute.[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. Three years later, her father relocated the family toPalo Alto, California, where he worked at theSLAC National Accelerator Laboratory for 26 years.[15][16] 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.[17]
Porat began her career atMorgan Stanley in 1987 and left in 1993 to follow Morgan Stanley presidentRobert F. Greenhill toSmith Barney[18] 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.[19][20] Her financial partner during theDot-com bubble wasMary Meeker, the godmother to Porat's three children.[18] In a 2014,Politico published an articled titled "Porat: The Most Powerful Woman On Wall Street".[21]
During the 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.[22][23] 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.[24][25][26]
In 2013, it was reported that PresidentBarack Obama would nominate Porat as the nextDeputy Secretary of the Treasury.[27] 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.[28][29]
Porat's career was analyzed in theMcKinsey & Company study "How Remarkable Women Lead".[30] She was named "Best Financial Institutions CFO" in a poll conducted byInstitutional Investor for its "2014 All-America Executive Team".[31]
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.[32] She has been credited with boosting Google's share price by reorganizing the company and imposing financial discipline.[33] For the "2018 All America Executive Team", she was named "Best Internet CFO" byInstitutional Investor.[34] Porat spoke at theFortune Most Powerful Women Summit inDana Point, California, on October 19, 2016, in her capacity as CFO ofAlphabet Inc. andGoogle.[35] 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,[36] $47 million in 2018, $688,000 in 2017, and $39 million in 2016.[37]
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.[38]
She is a member of the Board of Directors ofStanford University Management Company,[39] the university's endowment, the Board of Trustees ofMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,[40] the Board of Directors ofThe Council on Foreign Relations,[9] the Board of Directors ofBloomberg Philanthropies,[41] and the Board of Directors ofThe Blackstone Group.[42] She previously served on the Board of Trustees ofStanford University,[43] the Borrowing Advisory Committee of theUnited States Treasury,[44] and the Board of Trustees of theEconomic Club of New York.[45] She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at theBrookings Institution,[46] and the Economic Strategy Group at theAspen Institute.[47]
Porat supportedHillary Clinton for president in 2008 and 2016, hosting fundraisers for her at the Dakota in New York City.[48]
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".[49]
Porat has been married to Anthony Paduano, a partner in the law firm Paduano & Weintraub, since 1983.[11] Porat is a survivor ofbreast cancer.[50]
In September 2015, Porat reportedly paid $30 million for a house inPalo Alto.[16] In 2016, she gave the commencement address for graduates of theWharton School.[51]
In the 2011HBO movieToo Big to Fail, Porat is played byJennifer van Dyck.[52]
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