Ruth Porat

Last updated

Ruth Porat
RuthPorat2016 (cropped).jpg
Porat in 2016
Born1957 (age 67–68)
Sale, Cheshire, England, UK
NationalityBritish, American [1]
Education
TitlePresident and Chief Investment Officer of Google and Alphabet
SpouseAnthony Paduano
Children3
Relatives Marc Porat (brother)

Ruth Porat (born 1957 [2] ) is a British-American business executive who is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google, LLC and prior to that was Chief Financial Officer of the same companies from 2015 to 2024. [3] [4] [5] Prior to joining Google, Porat was the Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer of Morgan Stanley from January 2010 to May 2015. [6]

Contents

In 2023, Porat was listed as the 12th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes , [5] and sixth on Fortune 's Most Powerful Women list. [7]

Early life and education

Porat was born to a Jewish family [8] in Sale, Cheshire, England, [9] the daughter of Dr. Dan and Frieda Porat. Her mother was born in Mandatory Palestine, and her father fled Vienna on Kristallnacht and found his way to Mandatory Palestine, enlisted in the British Army as a teenager [10] and later fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. [11] [12] Her father's testimony about surviving the Holocaust was taken by the USC Shoah Foundation Institute. [13] She has a brother, Marc Porat, who founded General Magic. [14]

Porat moved at a young age to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her father was a research fellow in the physics department at Harvard University. Three years later, her father relocated the family to Palo Alto, California, where he worked at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory for 26 years. [15] [16] Porat holds a B.A. in economics and international relations from Stanford University, a M.Sc. in industrial relations from the London School of Economics, and an M.B.A. with distinction from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. [17]

Career

Morgan Stanley

Porat began her career at Morgan Stanley in 1987 and left in 1993 to follow Morgan Stanley president Robert F. Greenhill to Smith 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 saved Amazon from collapse during the dot-com melt down in 2000. [19] [20] Her financial partner during the Dot-com bubble was Mary 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 the United States Department of the Treasury regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the New York Federal Reserve Bank with respect to AIG. [22] [23] In May 2011, she presented to the Bretton Woods Committee hosted by the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., on post-crisis reform and financial legislation, and to the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2013 on "trust" levels within and of the financial sector. [24] [25] [26]

In 2013, it was reported that President Barack Obama would nominate Porat as the next Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. [27] However, it was reported later by Bloomberg News and The 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-nominee Jack Lew. [28] [29]

Porat's career was analyzed in the McKinsey & Company study "How Remarkable Women Lead". [30] She was named "Best Financial Institutions CFO" in a poll conducted by Institutional Investor for its "2014 All-America Executive Team". [31]

Google

On March 24, 2015, it was announced that Porat would join Google 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" by Institutional Investor . [34] Porat spoke at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Dana Point, California, on October 19, 2016, in her capacity as CFO of Alphabet Inc. and Google. [35] At Google, 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 and chief 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]

Board membership

She is a member of the Board of Directors of Stanford University Management Company, [39] the university's endowment, the Board of Trustees of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, [40] the Board of Directors of The Council on Foreign Relations, [9] the Board of Directors of Bloomberg Philanthropies, [41] and the Board of Directors of The Blackstone Group. [42] She previously served on the Board of Trustees of Stanford University, [43] the Borrowing Advisory Committee of the United States Treasury, [44] and the Board of Trustees of the Economic Club of New York. [45] She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution, [46] and the Economic Strategy Group at the Aspen Institute. [47]

Political views

Porat supported Hillary 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]

Personal life

Porat has been married to Anthony Paduano, a partner in the law firm Paduano & Weintraub, since 1983. [11] Porat is a survivor of breast cancer. [50]

In September 2015, Porat reportedly paid $30 million for a house in Palo Alto. [16] In 2016, she gave the commencement address for graduates of the Wharton School. [51]

In the 2011 HBO movie Too Big to Fail , Porat is played by Jennifer van Dyck. [52]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morgan Stanley</span> American financial services company

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 41 countries and more than 90,000 employees, the firm's clients include corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley ranked No. 61 in the 2023 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue and in the same year ranked #30 in Forbes Global 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abigail Johnson</span> American billionaire and businesswoman

Abigail Pierrepont Johnson is an American billionaire businesswoman and the granddaughter of late Edward C. Johnson II, the founder of Fidelity Investments. Since 2014, Johnson has been president and chief executive officer (CEO) of American investment firm Fidelity Investments (FMR), and chair of its former sister company Fidelity International (FIL). Fidelity was founded by her grandfather Edward C. Johnson II. Her father, Edward C. "Ned" Johnson III, remained chair emeritus of FMR until his death in March 2022. As of March 2013, the Johnson family owned a 49% stake in the privately-held company, with Johnson herself holding an estimated 24.5%. She is a board member of Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Decker</span> American businesswoman (born 1962)

Susan Lynne Decker is an American businesswoman. She was president of Yahoo! Inc in 2007 and 2008, leading the operations of the company while Jerry Yang was chief executive officer. In 2017, Decker co-founded a social networking platform called Raftr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoe Cruz</span> Greek American banking executive

Zoe Cruz is a Greek American senior banking executive and former co-president of Morgan Stanley. Currently, she serves as Founder and CEO of Menai Financial Group.

John J. Mack is a senior advisor to the investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the former CEO and chairman of the board at Morgan Stanley, the New York–based investment bank and brokerage firm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Meeker</span> American venture capitalist and Wall Street securities analyst

Mary Meeker is an American venture capitalist and former Wall Street securities analyst. Her primary work is on Internet and new technologies. She is the founder and general partner at BOND, a San Francisco–based venture capital firm. She previously served as partner at Kleiner Perkins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safra Catz</span> Israeli-American business executive

Safra Ada Catz is an Israeli-American billionaire banker and technology executive. She is the CEO of Oracle Corporation. She has been an executive at Oracle since April 1999, and a board member since 2001. In April 2011, she was named co-president and chief financial officer (CFO), reporting to founder Larry Ellison. In September 2014, Oracle announced that Ellison would step down as CEO and that Mark Hurd and Catz had been named as joint CEOs. In September 2019, Catz became the sole CEO after Hurd resigned due to health issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jing Ulrich</span>

Jing Ulrich, née Li (李晶), is Managing Director and the Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at JPMorgan Chase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane Greene</span> American businesswoman

Diane B. Greene is an American technology entrepreneur and executive. Greene started her career as a naval architect before transitioning to the tech industry, where she was a founder and CEO of VMware from 1998 until 2008. She was a board director of Google and CEO of Google Cloud from 2015 until 2019. She was also the co-founder and CEO of two startups, Bebop and VXtreme, which were acquired by Google and Microsoft, for $380 million and $75 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ana Botín</span> Spanish businesswoman, banker (born 1960)

Ana Patricia Botín-Sanz de Sautuola O'Shea is a Spanish banker who has been the executive chairman of Santander Group since 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Schapiro</span> 29th Chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission

Mary Lovelace Schapiro served as the 29th Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). She was appointed by President Barack Obama, unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and assumed the Chairship on January 27, 2009. She is the first woman to be the permanent Chair of the SEC. In 2009, Forbes ranked her the 56th most powerful woman in the world.

David Alan Viniar is an American businessman who was the CFO and executive vice president at Goldman Sachs from 1999 until January 31, 2013. He is currently on the board of directors of Goldman Sachs.

Eileen Murray is an American financial services executive and is the former co-CEO at Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest institutional asset managers. Murray has also held executive positions at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston, Duff Capital Advisors and Investment Risk Management. She was named one of the 25 Most Powerful Non-Bank Women in Banking, by U.S. Banker, for the years 2007 and 2008.

Marc Porat is an American tech entrepreneur and angel investor. He is founder of six companies including General Magic. In the early 2000s, Porat was a member of a high-profile wave of tech executives who founded cleantech companies. He launched three companies in the built environment: Serious Materials, Zeta Communities, and CalStar Cement and was a member of the U.S. China Green Energy Council.

Catherine "Cathie" A. Lesjak was the chief financial officer (CFO) of HP Inc. She became CFO of Hewlett‑Packard Company on January 1, 2007 and was the interim CEO from August 6, 2010 to November 1, 2010. During her tenure as interim CEO, HP paid a record 325 times EBITDA for 3PAR in a bidding war with Dell Computer. HP also paid 57 times EBITDA for ArcSight Inc. She served as Senior Vice President and Treasurer of Hewlett-Packard Company since June 2003. Lesjak served as a Director of Neoware Inc. since October 2007. Her salary for 2009 was $589,063.00.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Callahan Erdoes</span> American banker (born 1967)

Mary Callahan Erdoes is an American investment manager and businesswoman. She is the chief executive officer (CEO) of the asset and wealth management division of J.P. Morgan, serving since 2009. With the firm since 1996, she began her career as a portfolio manager, specializing in fixed income trading. From 2005 to 2009, she served as the CEO of the firm's private bank, advising wealthy families and institutions. Her career has led to her being described as the most powerful woman in American finance. She has been noted as a potential successor to Jamie Dimon, as CEO of JPMorgan Chase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Barra</span> American businesswoman and executive

Mary Teresa Barra is an American businesswoman who has been the chair and chief executive officer (CEO) of General Motors since January 15, 2014. She is the first female CEO of a 'Big Three' automaker. In December 2013, GM named her to succeed Daniel Akerson as CEO. Prior to being named CEO, Barra was executive vice president of global product development, purchasing, and supply chain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Hood</span> American businesswoman (born 1971)

Amy Hood, is an American business executive serving as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft since 2013. Hood is the first female CFO in Microsoft's history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alphabet Inc.</span> American international technology conglomerate

Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Alphabet is the world's second-largest technology company by revenue, after Apple, and one of the world's most valuable companies. It was created through a restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent holding company of Google and several former Google subsidiaries. It is considered one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.

Jessica Rodgers Uhl is an American business executive. She is the president of GE Vernova, the vice chair of Mission Possible Partnership, an independent director of Goldman Sachs, and a member of the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University (SIPA) Center on Global Energy Policy advisory board. She is a former CFO of Shell and serves as a director. She has been recognized as one of the top 50 "Most Powerful Women" by Forbes for her global leadership, and by Fortune for her business leadership.

References

  1. ↑ Forbes, Moira; Vuleta, Christina (4 December 2018). "The World's Most Powerful Women 2018". Forbes. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  2. ↑ D'Onfro, Jillian (17 August 2016). "The incredible rise of Ruth Porat, CFO at one of the most valuable companies in the world". Insider.
  3. 1 2 McGrath, Maggie (24 March 2015). "Google Lures CFO Ruth Porat From Morgan Stanley". Forbes.
  4. ↑ Patricia Garcia. "Ruth Porat Is Google's First Female CFO: 10 Other Powerful Women in Tech". Vogue. Archived from the original on 8 November 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  5. 1 2 "World's Most Powerful Women: Ruth Porat". Forbes .
  6. ↑ "Morgan Stanley CFO Ruth Porat to be Google's new CFO". Los Angeles Times. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  7. ↑ "Fortune Reveals 100 Most Powerful Women In Business".
  8. ↑ Shamah, David (2 March 2015). "New Google CFO Ruth Porat's family a mirror of American Jewry". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 "Ruth Porat". Council on Foreign Relations. Archived from the original on 17 January 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  10. ↑ ["Dan Porat-National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism" nationalfonds.org/dan-porat-en#Rommel]
  11. 1 2 "Ruth Porat Wed To Law Student". The New York Times. 18 December 1983.
  12. ↑ Dr. Frieda Porat's obituary
  13. ↑ "USC Shoah Foundation Institute testimony of Dan Porat -- Collections Search -- United States Holocaust Museum"
  14. ↑ Bergen, Mark (15 July 2015). "Wall Street Is Downright Giddy for the Debut of Ruth Porat, Google's New CFO". Vox. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  15. ↑ "A Dossier on Morgan Stanley's New CFO Ruth Porat". The Wall Street Journal. 8 December 2009.
  16. 1 2 "The incredible rise of Ruth Porat, CFO at one of the most valuable companies in the world". Business Insider. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  17. ↑ "Ruth Porat to Join Google as Chief Financial Officer". Alphabet. 24 March 2015.
  18. 1 2 Craig, Suzanne (9 November 2010). "Dealbook: A Female Wall St. Financial Chief Avoids Pitfalls That Stymied Others". The New York Times.
  19. ↑ The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos And The Age Of Amazon, Little, Brown & Co., p. 101, (New York 2013)
  20. ↑ "The Little-Known Deal That Saved Amazon From The Dot-Com Crash," Timothy B. Lee, Vox, (April 5, 2017)
  21. ↑ White, Ben (22 July 2014). "Porat: 'The most powerful woman on Wall Street'". POLITICO. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  22. ↑ Sorkin, Andrew Ross (2009). Too Big to Fail . Viking Press. pp.  372, 382. ISBN   978-0-670-02125-3.
  23. ↑ "When Treasury Calls". The Deal . September 2008. Archived from the original on 27 April 2013.
  24. ↑ "2011 Bretton Woods Annual Meeting: Risks to the Global System". The Bretton Woods Committee. May 2011.
  25. ↑ "2013 Edelman Trust Barometer". Edelman. January 2013.
  26. ↑ "Ruth Porat". World Economic Forum. December 2013.
  27. ↑ "Obama Considering Morgan Stanley's Porat for Treasury Job". Bloomberg News. 14 January 2013.
  28. ↑ "Morgan Stanley's Porat No Longer Interested in Treasury Post". Bloomberg News.
  29. ↑ "Ruth Porat Withdraws Name From Deputy Treasury Race". The New York Times. 28 March 2013.
  30. ↑ Barsh, Joanna; Cranston, Susie; Lewis, Geoffrey (2010). How Remarkable Women Lead: The Breakthrough Model for Work and Life. Crown Books. ISBN   978-0307461704.
  31. ↑ "Details". Institutional Investor. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  32. ↑ Moore, Michael (26 March 2015). "Google Agrees to Pay New CFO Ruth Porat $70 Million by 2016". Bloomberg Business .
  33. ↑ "Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had To Worry About Financial Discipline--Until Now". Bloomberg BusinessWeek , 8 December 2016.
  34. ↑ Whyte, Amy (7 November 2017). "The 2018 All-America Executive Team: What Makes a Top CEO". Institutional Investor. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  35. ↑ Pressman, Aaron (27 October 2017). "Data Sheet—Amazon, Google, and Microsoft Have Plenty to Celebrate Right Now". Fortune. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  36. ↑ "Alphabet, Inc. 2021 Proxy Statement".
  37. ↑ Page, Larry; Brin, Sergey; Hennessy, John L. (30 April 2019). "ALPHABET INC Schedule 14A". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  38. ↑ "Alphabet's CFO Gets A Promotion To President After Q2 Earnings Top The Forecasts". Forbes. 27 July 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  39. ↑ "Ruth Porat | SIEPR". siepr.stanford.edu. Archived from the original on 20 June 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  40. ↑ "Board of Trustees". Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
  41. ↑ "Board of Directors". Bloomberg.
  42. ↑ "UPDATE 1-Blackstone adds Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat to its board". Reuters. 25 June 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  43. ↑ "Board of Trustees welcomes two new members who bring 'wisdom and expertise'". Stanford Report. Stanford University. 17 August 2010.
  44. ↑ "Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee Members". US Department of the Treasury.
  45. ↑ "Trustees and Officers". The Economic Club of New York. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2013..
  46. ↑ "Advisory Council Announced: Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings" (Press release). Brookings Institution. 27 March 2014.
  47. ↑ "MEMBERS • the Aspen Institute Economic Strategy Group".
  48. ↑ "A Morning At The Dakota". The Washington Post. February 2008. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.
  49. ↑ "Morgan Stanley CFO Ruth Porat: Raise Taxes On The Rich". The Huffington Post. December 2011.
  50. ↑ Ruth Porat, Battling Cancer by Going to Work. Big Think. November 2010.
  51. ↑ Wharton MBA Graduation Ceremony 2016 , retrieved 14 June 2023
  52. ↑ Too Big To Fail at IMDb
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.