Ruth Porat

Who is Ruth Porat?

Ruth Porat is a tech-banker-turned-generalist who was tapped to run Morgan Stanley's Financial Institutions Group in 2006.

Porat joined Morgan Stanley in 1987 in its Mergers and Acquisitions Department. She is now executive vice president and chief financial officer and sits on the firm's Operating and Management committees. Prior to becoming CFO, Porat served as vice chair, Investment Banking; global head of the Financial Institutions Group; and co-head of the Global Technology Group. Throughout the recent financial crisis, she has been responsible for Morgan Stanley's coverage of financial institutions and governments globally, and she led the Morgan Stanley team advising the U.S. Treasury on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the team advising the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on AIG.

Porat earned her undergraduate degrees in economics and international relations from Stanford in 1979. She received a master's degree from the London School of Economics in 1981 and her MBA with distinction from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987.