Most powerful woman on Wall Street is Google’s new CFO

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By Larry Banks

Former CFO of Morgan Stanley, Ruth Porat, will become Google’s new CFO replacing Patrick Pichette, who announced his retirement on March 10.

Ruth Porat to become Google CFO

Porat, who widely regarded as “the most powerful woman on Wall Street” joined Morgan Stanley in 1987, acting in several roles before becoming CFO in January, 2010.

At Morgan Stanley she acted as adviser to many of the biggest tech company’s during IPO, such as Amazon and eBay, and also played an important role in the financial crisis as advisor to the US Department of Treasury.

Porat left Morgan Stanley in 2013 to run for deputy Treasure Secretary, but withdraw because “in part because she did not want to face questions about her finances and was worried about a highly charged environment in Washington against Wall Street bankers”, according to The New York Times.

Porat will join as Google’s new CFO in May, reporting directly to CEO Larry Page. Pichette, who was CFO of Google since 2008, was often called the company’s “secret weapon”, and helped the company introduce new revenue-generating products and cutting those that were not profitable.

“I’m delighted to be returning to my California roots and joining Google”, Porat said in the company’s announcement. “Growing up in Silicon Valley, during my time at Morgan Stanley and as a member of Stanford’s Board, I’ve had the opportunity to experience firsthand how tech companies can help people in their daily lives. I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and get started”.

Morgan Stanley says that investment banker Jonathan Pruzan will be its new CFO.

Here’s Google’s blog post with the announcement:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced that Ruth Porat, currently Chief Financial Officer at Morgan Stanley, will join its management team as CFO.

Ruth joined Morgan Stanley in 1987 and has played several key roles at the company, including Vice Chairman of Investment Banking, Global Head of the Financial Institutions Group and and co-Head of Technology Investment Banking. Throughout the financial crisis, Ruth led the Morgan Stanley teams advising the U.S. Treasury on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the New York Federal Reserve Bank on AIG. She has been the lead banker on numerous milestone technology financing rounds, including for Amazon, eBay, Netscape, Priceline and Verisign as well as for The Blackstone Group, GE and the NYSE. As CFO she helped improve resource optimization across different businesses through better capital and funding allocation, as well as expense reductions. Ruth has a B.A. from Stanford University (Economics & International Relations), a M.B.A. with distinction from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a M.Sc., from the London School of Economics (Industrial Relations). She is Vice Chair of the Stanford University Board of Trustees, a member of the U.S. Treasury’s Borrowing Advisory Committee, a Board Director at The Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Advisory Council of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Ruth will start at Google as CFO on May 26, reporting to Google CEO and Co-Founder, Larry Page.

“We’re tremendously fortunate to have found such a creative, experienced and operationally strong executive,” said Larry Page. “I look forward to learning from Ruth as we continue to innovate in our core–from search and ads, to Android, Chrome and YouTube–as well as invest in a thoughtful, disciplined way in our next generation of big bets. Finally, huge thanks to Patrick Pichette for his seven super successful years as CFO”.

“I’m delighted to be returning to my California roots and joining Google,” said Ruth Porat. “Growing up in Silicon Valley, during my time at Morgan Stanley and as a member of Stanford’s Board, I’ve had the opportunity to experience first hand how tech companies can help people in their daily lives. I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and get started.”

SOURCE: Google

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