Google's New CFO Gets $70Mn For Defecting

SAN FRANCISCO: Google just found out that luring a top executive from Wall Street to Silicon Valley is expensive.

The Mountain View, California, company is paying its new chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, more than $70 mn to defect from the same job at New York investment bank Morgan Stanley.

The lucrative pay package disclosed in a Thursday regulatory filing underscored how much Google prized Porat, who is considered to be among Wall Street's most powerful women.

Porat, Morgan Stanley's CFO since 2010, will start her new job May 26. Shortly after her arrival, Google will award her stock valued at $25 million and then dole out another bundle of stock worth $40 million next year. The stock awards will vest in stages through 2019.

Google Inc., the Internet's most profitable company, also is giving Porat a $5 million signing bonus to supplement her initial salary of $650,000. Porat, who grew up in California and graduated from Stanford University, will be reimbursed for moving to Silicon Valley, too.

Morgan Stanley paid Porat a $1 million salary as part of a $10.1 million compensation package in 2013. The bank hasn't yet revealed how much it paid Porat last year.
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