Morgan Stanley’s Ruth Porat will become Google’s next chief financial officer, the Mountain View, Calif. company said Tuesday.
Porat will join Google on May 26, Google said. She has been Morgan’s finance chief since 2010, after serving as vice chairman of investment banking, global head of the financial institutions group, and co-head of technology investment banking.
Porat has been the lead banker on notable technology financing rounds for Amazon, eBay, Netscape, Priceline, and Verisign, among others.
“I’m delighted to be returning to my California roots and joining Google,” Porat said in a Google press release. “Growing up in Silicon Valley, during my time at Morgan Stanley and as a member of Stanford [University]’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.”
Porat will replace Patrick Pichette, who earlier this month said that he was retiring early to spend more time with his family. At Morgan Stanley, Jonathan Pruzan, global co-head of the financial institutions group, will replace Porat, a Wall Street Journal article Tuesday said.
“After a 28-year career at Morgan Stanley, Ruth Porat has decided to leave the firm to take on a new role in Silicon Valley and return to her California roots,” the firm’s chairman and chief executive James Gorman wrote in a memorandum to employees. “It is with a heavy heart that we see her go.”
Of Pruzan, Gorman said in the memo, “He understands the current regulatory environment, having shepherded clients through the Fed’s stress test.”
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, noted Google.
According to a Tech Crunch article, Porat was considered for Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury by President Barack Obama in 2013, but reportedly withdrew her name from consideration.
Photo: Jin Lee/Bloomberg News, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 1.0