Ruth Porat
Ruth Porat | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1957 Sale, Cheshire, England |
| Occupation | Corporate executive |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Known for | President and Chief Investment Officer at Alphabet and Google; former CFO of Alphabet and Google; former CFO of Morgan Stanley |
Ruth Porat (born 1957) is a British-American corporate leader currently holding the positions of president and chief investment officer at Alphabet and its affiliate Google, LLC. She served as the chief financial officer for both organizations from 2015 until 2024. Prior to her tenure at Google, Porat was the executive vice president and CFO at Morgan Stanley from January 2010 through May 2015.
In 2024, Porat was ranked 12th on Forbes list of the world’s most influential women and placed sixth on Fortune’s ranking of Most Powerful Women.
Early life and education
Born in Sale, Cheshire, England, Porat comes from a Jewish family with parents Dan and Frieda Porat. Her mother originated from Mandatory Palestine, while her father escaped Vienna during Kristallnacht, later serving in the British Army and participating in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Dan Porat’s experiences surviving Nazi persecution have been documented by the USC Shoah Foundation. Ruth has a brother, Marc Porat, who founded General Magic.
During her early years, Porat’s family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her father held a research fellowship at Harvard University under sponsorship from then-Senator John F. Kennedy. His work contributed to advancements in ion implantation technology for semiconductors. Subsequently, the family relocated to Palo Alto, California, where Dan Porat spent 26 years working at Stanford's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. His research on spark chamber spectrometers played a role in Nobel Prize-winning discoveries and collaborations with prominent physicists connected to future technology innovators.
Porat completed her undergraduate studies with a B.A. in economics and international relations at Stanford University. She then earned an M.Sc. in industrial relations from the London School of Economics and later obtained an MBA with distinction from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Morgan Stanley
Porat’s professional journey commenced at Morgan Stanley in 1987. She departed in 1993 to join Smith Barney alongside Morgan Stanley president Robert F. Greenhill, returning to Morgan Stanley in 1996. Prior to her appointment as CFO, she served as vice chairman of investment banking from 2003 to 2009 and led the Financial Institutions Group globally between 2006 and 2009. Additionally, she co-led technology investment banking and gained experience working within Morgan Stanley’s London office. Porat played a pivotal role in structuring European debt financing that contributed to Amazon’s survival during the dot-com bust of 2000. Throughout this period, her financial collaborator was Mary Meeker, who is also godmother to Porat’s three children. In 2014, Politico referred to her as "The Most Powerful Woman On Wall Street."
Amidst the 2008 financial crisis, Porat headed Morgan Stanley’s advisory team for the United States Department of the Treasury concerning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while also providing counsel to the New York Federal Reserve on issues related to AIG. She delivered remarks before the Bretton Woods Committee in 2011 focusing on reforms following the crisis and financial regulatory changes, and spoke about trust in finance at the 2013 World Economic Forum in Davos.
In 2013, President Barack Obama considered nominating Porat as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury; however, she ultimately withdrew from consideration due to improving conditions at Morgan Stanley coupled with anticipated difficulties during the confirmation process for Treasury nominees.
Porat’s leadership qualities were highlighted in a McKinsey & Company publication titled How Remarkable Women Lead. Furthermore, she earned recognition as "Best Financial Institutions CFO" by Institutional Investor in its 2014 All-America Executive Team survey.
On March 24, 2015, it was revealed that Porat would assume the role of CFO at Google beginning May 26, 2015. According to Bloomberg Business, her compensation package was valued at $70 million. She is recognized for enhancing Google's stock value through corporate restructuring and implementing rigorous financial management. The publication Institutional Investor honored her as the "Best Internet CFO" in their "2018 All America Executive Team" list. In 2016, Porat appeared as a speaker at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit representing Alphabet Inc. and Google as CFO. Her responsibilities at Google encompass Finance, Business Operations, Real Estate, and Workplace Services. Her remuneration was reported at $50 million in 2020, $47 million in 2018, and $39 million in 2016.
In July 2023, Porat received a promotion to president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google, effective from September 1, 2023. In this expanded capacity, she manages the company's "Other Bets" initiatives along with its private equity investments and holdings in real estate, infrastructure, and data centers. Additionally, she presented on Google AI’s progress in cancer research at the ASCO conference.
Board membership
Porat holds a position on the Board of Directors for the Stanford University Management Company, which supervises the university’s endowment. She also serves on boards for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Council on Foreign Relations, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and The Blackstone Group. Her previous board roles include membership on Stanford University’s Board of Trustees, the Borrowing Advisory Committee for the United States Treasury, and the Board of Trustees for the Economic Club of New York. Furthermore, she is part of the Advisory Council for the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution and contributes to the Economic Strategy Group at the Aspen Institute.
Political views
Porat backed Hillary Clinton during both her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids, organizing fundraising events in New York City. In 2011, she publicly supported increasing taxes on affluent individuals, emphasizing that "we cannot cut our way to greatness" when discussing fiscal austerity.
In March 2025, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie appointed Porat as co-chair of "The Partnership for San Francisco," alongside Laurene Powell Jobs, with a mission to accelerate economic revitalization in the city.
Personal life
Since 1983, Porat has been married to Anthony Paduano, a partner at the law firm Paduano & Weintraub. She is a survivor of breast cancer. In September 2015, she acquired a residence in Palo Alto valued at $30 million. The following year, she delivered the commencement speech at the Wharton School.
In popular culture
In the HBO film Too Big to Fail released in 2011, Porat is depicted by actress Jennifer van Dyck.