By Justin Baer
Morgan Stanley's chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, will leave
the Wall Street firm for the same role at technology giant Google
Inc.
Jonathan Pruzan, a 46-year-old investment banker who co-led the
team that advises banks and other financial-services companies,
will succeed Ms. Porat as Morgan Stanley's finance chief, James
Gorman, chairman and chief executive, wrote Tuesday in a memorandum
to employees.
"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," Mr. Gorman wrote. "It is with
a heavy heart that we see her go."
Morgan Stanley shares edged down 0.3% in early trading, while
Google climbed 1.8%.
Ms. Porat grew up in California and earned a degree from
Stanford University, and during an earlier stint at Morgan Stanley
served as co-head of investment-banking to technology
companies.
She helped bring technology and Internet companies public during
the 1990s. Clients included Priceline.com Inc., eBay Inc. and
Amazon.com. She also worked the initial public offering of onetime
GE subsidiary Genworth Financial Inc. in 2004
Ms. Porat spent the past five years as finance chief and leaves
as Morgan Stanley settles into a steadier place than at any point
since the financial crisis. In her role as finance chief, Ms. Porat
had helped Mr. Gorman shrink the firm's balance sheet, shed some of
its riskiest activities, and double-down on a wealth-management
division that promises stable profits.
Her move traces a well-worn path. Wall Street executives at all
levels, from its most junior employees to some of its brightest
stars, have migrated to Silicon Valley in recent years as new rules
on everything from capital and risk-taking to compensation dim the
prospects of a financial-services industry that was once the top
destination for the ambitious.
A veteran mergers-and-acquisitions banker ahead of her
appointment as finance chief, Ms. Porat advised on some of firm's
highest profile assignments, including the government takeovers of
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Ms. Porat also was previously a candidate to be the deputy
Treasury secretary but told the Obama administration about two
years ago that she wasn't interested in the position. The Wall
Street Journal previously reported that her interest declined in
the role, which required Senate confirmation, after she saw the
grilling Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew received about his years
working on Wall Street, his investments during that time and his
pay.
Google, meanwhile, said Ms. Porat will start as chief financial
officer on May 26.
Google disclosed earlier this month that Patrick Pichette, its
finance chief since 2008, was going to retire from the company. The
company had said he would stay while Google conducted a search for
his replacement.
His departure added to a run of CFO turnover in Silicon Valley.
Finance chiefs of Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. all
announced their departures in the past year. Unlike Google, those
three companies named successors at the same time the retirements
were announced.
Write to Justin Baer at justin.baer@wsj.com
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