Technology

Google Imports New CFO Ruth Porat from Wall Street

Published

9 years ago

March 24, 2015

This 2012 photo provided by Morgan Stanley shows outgoing Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat. Morgan Stanley on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 announced that Porat is leaving the New York investment bank for the same job at Google. (AP Photo/Camera 1 via Morgan Stanley, Larry Lettera)

MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has lured away Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, to be its CFO at a time when the Internet search leader and its Silicon Valley peers are under fire for hiring and promoting too few women.

The appointment announced Tuesday fills a void that opened earlier this month after Google’s CFO of the past seven years, Patrick Pichette, announced his plans to retire.

Porat, 58, will become Google’s highest-ranking female executive when she starts her new job on May 26. Her last day at Morgan Stanley will be April 30, ending a 28-year career at the New York investment bank.

Google Inc. and other Silicon Valley heavyweights, including Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc., are trying to add more women to their payrolls. The push began during the past 10 months after the companies released data revealing that women only filled 15 to 20 percent of the tech jobs, which tend to pay the most.

Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm that has financed Google and other prominent technology companies, is currently embroiled in a San Francisco trial that is airing embarrassing allegations of sexual discrimination. In the past week, sexual discrimination lawsuits have been filed by women who formerly worked at Facebook and Twitter.

Porat’s defection from a top job on Wall Street serves as the latest reminder of the technology industry’s allure as its products reshape culture and enrich the companies creating them.

Google has been at the forefront of upheaval during the past 15 years. Besides building the Internet’s dominant search engine and digital ad network, the Mountain View, California, company also boasts the top mobile operating system in Android and the most popular video site in YouTube, as well as the popular Chrome browser and Gmail service.

The success has spawned three multibillionaires — Google CEO Larry Page, co-founder Sergey Brin and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. Thousands of other Google employees, including its former chef and masseuse, have become millionaires.

Google, which started in 1998 in a Silicon Valley garage after raising $100,000, now has a market value of nearly $400 billion. Morgan Stanley, founded in 1935, has a market value of about $72 billion.

The terms of Porat’s contract at Google weren’t immediately disclosed. She received compensation valued at $10.1 million from Morgan Stanley in 2013. Pichette received compensation valued at $5.2 million in the same year.

Porat, Morgan Stanley’s CFO since 2010, won Wall Street’s respect for helping the bank regain its financial stability after sinking into deep trouble along with much of the rest of the financial-services industry during the Great Recession. Her investor-friendly attitude fed speculation that Google may be more apt to return some of its $64 billion in cash to shareholders, either through dividends or by buying back stock.

Porat has California roots and connections on Google’s board of directors.

Although Porat was born in England, her father was a physicist who spent 26 years working at Stanford University, where she received her undergraduate degree in economics and international relations in 1979.

She also sits on Stanford’s board of trustees with two members of Google’s board, K. Ram Shriram and John Hennessy. Hennessy, who is also Stanford’s president, is Google’s lead independent director.

Google’s shares rose $12.17 to close Tuesday at $577.54. The stock has been lagging the overall market for the past 15 months, partly because of investors’ frustration with Google’s history of spending heavily on far-flung projects, such as driverless cars and Internet-connected glasses, which may take years to pay off.

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Attorney General Rob Bonta, Oakland Lawmakers, Introduce Legislation to Protect Youth Online

At a press conference in downtown Oakland on Jan. 29, Attorney General Rob Bonta joined Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) to announce two pieces of legislation designed to protect children online. The bills are Senate Bill (SB) 976, the Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act and Assembly Bill (AB) 1949, the California Children’s Data Privacy Act.

Published

1 week ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

From left to right: Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), Attorney General Rob Bonta and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) at a press conference introducing legislation to protect young people online.

By Magaly Muñoz

The bills are Senate Bill (SB) 976, the Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act and Assembly Bill (AB) 1949, the California Children’s Data Privacy Act.

Skinner authored SB 976, which addresses online addiction affecting teenage users, while Wicks’s bill, AB 1949, takes on big tech by proposing data privacy and children rights protections.

“Social media companies unfortunately show us time and time again that they are all too willing to ignore the detriment to our children, the pain to our children, the mental health and physical challenges they face, in order to pursue profits,” Bonta said.

SB 976 would allow parents to control the nature and frequency of the content their under-18-year-old children see on social media. Notifications from social media platforms would also be paused from midnight to 6 am and controls would allow parents to set time limits on their children’s usage based on their discretion.

Skinner stated that the longer that kids are on their phones during the day, the higher the risk for depression, anxiety and other related issues.

The bill would also push to get rid of addictive media that is harmful for young women and girls, specifically image filters that mimic cosmetic plastic surgery.

Bonta and 33 other attorney generals had previously filed a lawsuit against Meta, owner of the popular social media applications Instagram and Facebook. The filing claims that the company purposefully uses algorithmized content that harms younger audiences.

“Social media companies have the ability to protect our kids, they could act, but they do not,” Skinner said.

The Child Data Privacy Act would strengthen existing protections for data privacy under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The lawmakers argue that the law does not have effective protection for those under 18 years old.

Wicks stated that the bill would forbid businesses from collecting, using, sharing, or selling personal data of anyone underage unless they receive informed consent, or it becomes necessary for the purpose of the business.

Wicks added that the acts would make it so that a search on the internet like “How do I lose weight?” would not result in dieting pill advertisements targeting youth, which, some experts report, could be harmful to their mental and physical health.

“In a digital age where the vulnerabilities of young users are continually exploited, we cannot afford to let our laws lag behind, our children deserve complete assurance that their online experience will be safeguarded from invasive practices,” Wicks said.

Supporters of the two acts say they have gained bipartisan support issue, but the authors and Bonta expect them to be met with pushback from the affected companies.

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Unleashing the Power_ Discover the The Thrills…F-TYPE Convertible

Published

4 months ago

December 18, 2023

Oakland Post

Performance & Handling
Powered by a robust 5.0 Liter Supercharged 8 Cylinder Gas Engine, the F-Type R75 doesn’t just purr; it roars with a mighty 575 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. Coupled with an 8-speed Automatic Transmission, the car offers an exhilarating drive that is both fast and smooth. The All-Wheel Drive system ensures excellent traction and stability, making it a joy to handle in various driving conditions. The Electric Power Assisted Steering and JaguarDrive Control with Selectable Driving Modes add to the car’s agility, providing a driving experience that is as intuitive as it is thrilling. Additionally, the Adaptive Dynamics and Electronic Active Differential with Torque Vectoring by Braking enhance the car’s responsiveness, making every turn a testament to its engineering prowess. Unique to AutoNetwork.com.

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Elevate Your Ride…

Join us for a virtual car’s best-detailed walkaround of the sleek and stylish 2024 Jaguar F-TYPE AWD convertible. Get an up-close look at the exterior design, interior features, and performance capabilities of this luxury sports car. From its powerful engine to its advanced technology, this video will give you a comprehensive overview of what makes […]
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Published

4 months ago

December 18, 2023

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Join us for a virtual car’s best-detailed walkaround of the sleek and stylish 2024 Jaguar F-TYPE AWD convertible. Get an up-close look at the exterior design, interior features, and performance capabilities of this luxury sports car. From its powerful engine to its advanced technology, this video will give you a comprehensive overview of what makes the F-TYPE AWD convertible stand out on the road. Unique to AutoNetwork.com.