Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat leaving role to become president and chief investment officer
Ruth Porat will step down as Alphabet‘s chief financial officer and take a new role as president and chief investment officer, the company announced on Tuesday.
She took over as CFO for Google in 2015 and oversaw the transition into the company’s current Alphabet structure.
She will continue as CFO until Alphabet selects a replacement, and will continue to report to CEO Sundar Pichai, the company said.
Ruth Porat told CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa Tuesday that the role of President and CIO will include both external and internal responsibilities.
The role will also include focusing on investments across the board, Porat told CNBC’s Bosa. That will include infrastructure, real estate, data centers and efforts to expand in the India region. Porat will also be engaged with policy makers to recognize the importance of technology.
When asked what prompted the timing, Porat said she had been a CFO for 14 years and it was time for her to take on a different set of challenges. Before joining Google, Porat was an executive at Morgan Stanley.
Her new role includes overseeing Alphabet’s “other bets,” which the company categorizes as projects not focused on software or advertising, such as the self-driving car company Waymo. She will also oversee how Alphabet invests its cash, Bosa reported.
“As our longest serving CFO, she has helped guide the company though an amazing period of growth, a global pandemic and the ongoing economic uncertainty that has followed,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said about Porat at the top of the post-earnings call with investors Tuesday. “It’s business as usual for now and no change in approach for the future,” he added.
Google reported second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, which beat analyst expectations for both earnings and revenue. Shares rose over 5% in extended trading.