Silicon Valley poaching to narrow gender gap
Ruth Porat shows how Wall Street could help Silicon Valley solve its gender gap.
When Google Inc. tapped the 28year Morgan Stanley veteran as its new chief financial officer, Porat became not only the latest from Wall Street to migrate to the technology industry but also the highest-ranking woman at the world’s largest web-search provider. Other tech companies need financial expertise and would benefit from an infusion of female talent as they face criticism about the lack of diversity in leadership ranks.
“They have no choice but to parachute in talented and proven women,” because there are so few in line for promotion to key jobs, said Pat Cook, president of Cook & Co., an executive-search firm in Bronxville, N.Y.
Tech companies tend to be maledominated, and not only in the executive suite. Payroll data released last year by Google, Apple Inc., Facebook and others showed that Asian and white men hold the vast majority of highly paid technical positions.
Other industries don’t look that much different, at least at the top. Porat, 57, spoke out about it last year, calling it an “embarrassment” that so few women run U.S. companies.
Women hold 24 of the chief executive jobs at Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies and 58 of the CFO positions, according to the S&P Capital database.
Silicon Valley companies have been recently turning to Wall Street. Snapchat Inc. named Credit Suisse Group’s Imran Khan as chief strategy officer, and Twitter hired Anthony Noto, who had been with Goldman Sachs Group., as CFO. And Porat’s not the first female tech CFO with a finance industry background: Square Inc.’s Sarah Friar worked at Goldman.
“Wall Street has much of the top talent still in the marketplace, and it’s certainly an area where you can expect people looking for future leaders,” said Nada Usina, who leads the CEO/Board Services practices for the technology sector in the Americas for Russell Reynolds Associates.
“The women being put in these roles are extraordinary for their talent, and for how much they invest in helping move along those percentages” in an industry with a gender imbalance.
Gina Scigliano, a spokeswoman for Google, declined to comment.
Women tend to start at lower salaries at U.S. corporations than men and rarely reach the top posts that pay the most, Porat said in a speech last year to the Japan Society in New York, suggesting that lawmakers consider structural changes, such as requiring companies to provide family leave, so women aren’t forced to choose between careers and children.
“Women are still not reaching the most senior levels of corporations,” Porat said in the speech. “This is not a shortcoming of women.”