New Google CFO Ruth Porat is getting a big raise, with the tech giant paying her more than $70 million in cash and stock to make the move from Morgan Stanley.
According to a regulatory filing, Porat’s annual base salary at Google will be a relatively modest $600,000. She made $1 million a year at Morgan Stanley, where she had been finance chief since 2010.
Ruth Porat
But in addition to the salary, Google is giving Porat a $5 million signing bonus, a $25 million new-hire restricted stock grant and, in 2016, a $40 million biennial restricted stock grant. The pay package is more than twice the $29.6 million that Porat made in total compensation at Morgan Stanley from 2010 to 2013, according to Reuters.
“While Wall Street investment banks are closely scrutinized by shareholders on bonus packages and stock awards, Silicon Valley has far greater leeway to lure talent with stock-loaded compensation,” Forbes reported, predicting a continued brain drain from the financial to the tech world.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if the CFO ranks at top tech companies become increasingly staffed by Wall Street veterans,” Forbes said. “As the tech sector rises in profitability and takes an even greater prominence on public markets, there’s an increasing need for firms to communicate and act like S&P 500-sized companies.”
Porat’s predecessor at Google, Patrick Pichette, received $39 million in cash and stock in 2012 and $18 million in 2011. He was paid the same annual base salary that Porat will make.
Porat will start her new job on May 26, according to the filing. Sometime within her first month she will get the $5 million signing bonus. If she quits before her first anniversary, she would have to return that bonus, on a pro-rated basis.
The $25 million new-hire grant will be made on the first Wednesday of June, with the first $5 million vesting in December 2015 and the remaining $20 million vesting on a pro-rata quarterly basis in 2016 and 2017. The $40 million biennial grant will vest on a pro-rata quarterly basis from 2016 to 2019.
In another recent move from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, former Goldman Sachs banker Anthony Noto was hired as CFO of Twitter. His pay package includes 1.5 million restricted stock units currently worth roughly $75 million.
Photo: Jin Lee, Bloomberg News, CC BY 1.0
Correction: This story originally stated that in the third paragraph that Porat would receive a $1 million signing bonus. It should have said $5 million.
