Barron’s 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance: Ruth Porat

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Alphabet’s

finance chief, Ruth Porat, was instrumental in coordinating the tech giant’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, ensuring that 100,000 employees around the world made an orderly transition to working from home.

Over the past year, Porat has been focused on efforts the company has made to address societal inequities exacerbated by the pandemic. She was involved in Alphabet’s $800 million commitment to support small and midsize businesses, front-line health workers, health organizations, and governments.

Porat, 63, joined Alphabet in 2015 as CFO, when the company was called Google. Before that, Porat was Morgan Stanley’s finance chief, having worked in various roles since 1987. This is her second year on the Barron’s list.

100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance

Alphabet generated more than $40.3 billion in net profit last year, double what it achieved when Porat joined the business. During her tenure, she presided over a threefold increase in revenue, to $182.5 billion last year.

A two-time survivor of breast cancer, Porat is passionate about finding ways that Google’s artificial-intelligence technology can be put to work combating the disease. Porat enjoys working with nonprofit think tanks. She’s a board member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she’s on the advisory council of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Write to Max A. Cherney at [email protected]