WEBVTT - Ruth Porat 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:03.240 You know, tech stocks really have had a bit of 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:05.360 a rough time lately. But some of them, you know, 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:08.000 when you think about it, even after the recent folatility, 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:11.040 will you know, there's still up a lot some of them, Yeah, Denis. 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:14.040 And take Google's parent Alphabet for example. It's come down 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.040 from its highs for the year, but people invested in 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.120 Alphabet at the start of the year still aren't exactly 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.439 losing money. Yeah. And David Rubinstein had a chance to 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.520 talk with Ruth poor At on the David Rubinstein Show 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:30.600 Peer to Peer Conversations about the company, and he starts 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.720 here by asking her how business has been during the pandemic. 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:36.520 Let's listen in So during this period of time, Google 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:38.639 has done quite well, Alphabet has done quite well. Your 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.320 stock is up but more than this year, and I 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.240 should say from the time you became the CFO, the 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.640 stock is up about over and the market caps over 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:51.479 So done quite well under your leadership. But I'm curious 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:54.880 or more people looking at doing searches now during this 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:58.080 COVID nineteen period of time than ever before, or the 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:02.080 people not spending as much time searching. I know people 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:04.959 are spending a lot of time searching. We have trillions 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.440 of searches every year pre COVID post COVID. It's really 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:12.280 the nature of searches the change. And so early in 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:17.160 the crisis, people really migrated to shifting for information about 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.760 the disease. What they needed to know is all information 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.200 about COVID. You then saw people shift to Okay, how 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.279 am I going to live my life in a COVID world? 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:27.640 And so more things that more how to search is 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:30.080 what do you do? On? How do I cook? What 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.240 do I do? And meditation wellness. It was really moving there. 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:37.480 Now you're seeing people moving back into more um commercial 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:41.600 activities and I think one of the big surges that 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:44.520 we saw was how can I how can I help 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:46.800 in my community? How can I help others? And it's 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:50.800 always really quite inspiring to see through search how people 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:53.560 are feeling about the world. So most of your employees 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.320 are still working remotely? Is that correct? So we moved 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:59.040 everybody to remote work from home, all d and twenty 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:01.680 thousand of us. But as countries are opening up, we're 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:03.880 starting to move people back in. So, for example, in 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.200 Taiwan we actually are about in places in Europe we've 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.920 been bringing some people back, but fundamentally we moved everybody 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:12.680 to work from home. When you started working remotely, did 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:14.640 you ever worry it would be a problem because you 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.000 have all these people, but you're technically very savvy. So 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.040 when we started the move to work from home, it 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.200 did seem daunting. I'm responsible for our crisis response and 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:26.000 put together a really strong governance around how do we 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:28.040 get people to move from home with a global team 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.320 and then a regional team, and we were in sync daily. 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.480 That worked really well. What we were most concerned about 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.040 was what would be the impact on productivity and wellness. 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:40.760 Our chief medical officer, very early in the crisis said 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.400 that more people would be affected by mental health issues 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.440 than actually the physical disease itself, So we focused on 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:49.280 those two and I think that was really important. The 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.240 other thing is Google is really about our people and 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.400 the ability to to liver for users and communities because 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.040 of our compute capacity. And one of the things we 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.240 didn't have to worry about was our ability to to 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.360 really deal with the surgeon online activity. And that was 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.920 because of all of the investments over many years and 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.600 all of the testing for what could happen in a 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.880 sort of crisis scenario. And I think it's an important 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.520 point because you can't solve the risk management issue in 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:18.720 the middle of a crisis. You obviously need to solve 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.280 it ahead of time, and that worked. So many companies 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:23.720 are saying, well, now that I've learned that my people 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:25.519 can work from home, maybe I don't need all these 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:27.320 people either in the office or I don't need all 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.600 these people. Is that your view? You don't need all 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:30.960 the people you have, or you may not need them 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.320 all in the office. We believe that when people are 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:38.880 together that's a critical element for innovation. Collaboration helps support innovation. 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.760 It's collaboration within teams, and it's collaboration across teams. It's 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.360 collaboration and its serendipity. So we do look forward to 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:48.040 having people back in the office. What we're looking at 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.920 is the productivity lift you get if people have the 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:55.000 ability to work from home some days be in the office, 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.920 in particular when the rest of their team or more broadly, 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.520 teams are in the office. And if you can save 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.800 people commute time, you have better access to talent. Because 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.520 you're solving what people want in their personal life, it's 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.920 actually going to result in a better outcome. What that 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.800 means for real estate we're still figuring out. Early on, 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.920 Google was well known for, among other things, Um, you've 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.359 got free food. Um, what about if you're working at 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.120 home you give them free food showing up by delivery 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:24.960 or somehow or how do they compensate for that? So 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:27.200 we're not doing that. But you know, a lot of 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:30.560 people focus on food when really what we are trying 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.880 to create have been trying to create is this fun, quirky, 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.640 magical campus. And so it's about more than just the 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.080 free food. It's the experience on campus. So what we 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:43.240 did when we moved everybody to home is we moved 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.640 a lot of these sort of connecting the community um 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.880 to a virtual delivery. And so for food, as an example, 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:51.679 you can do a one on one session with a chef, 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:54.320 you can do a cooking class. We took our fitness 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:57.920 classes and moved them to virtual fitness classes and even 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.760 some sort of goofy Google style ones like yoga with 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.640 your dog. What have you learned about yourself during this 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.520 period of time. One of the things that was actually gratifying, 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:09.960 if I can broaden that question, is what I saw 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:13.040 at Google and what I saw about my colleagues. And 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:16.520 this has obviously been an extraordinary stressful time. UM. We 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.839 feel this responsibility because so many people are counting on 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:22.960 us for quality information, for the ability to stay connected. 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:25.240 And what I saw was people really step up in 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.560 a meaningful way, and that was inspiring. It's been an 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.880 extraordinary time. UM. What I learned about myself is one 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:38.040 of the positive elements of of this has been sheltering 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.640 in place and having my kids who have graduated from college. 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.919 They're now back with us for at least a limited 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:47.080 period of time, and that's been remarkable in My husband 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.640 and I have thoroughly enjoyed that. So some people say 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:55.880 that the Google's of the world, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.279 Amazon are too powerful. They have so much power in 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:01.720 our economy that it's not healthy. And you've been a 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:05.839 congressional hearings recently where your CEO testify. UM, what is 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.400 your response to the view that the technology companies are 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.680 becoming so dominant in our economy that it's not healthy. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.640 We are very mindful of the fact that with the 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:17.400 scale of these company comes scrutiny, and that it's incumbent 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:21.799 on us to engage with regulators and help them understand 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.080 what is it that we're doing that is of benefit. 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.520 How how are we providing better services at lower costs? 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:31.719 Which is really indicative of the competitive nature of the 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.360 world in which we operate. We've got intense competition within 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.760 the US, intense competitors outside of the US, and uh, 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.120 you know, I think this COVID experience, many companies and 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.680 individuals would not have been able to operate the way 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:49.080 they did without the support and benefit from technology. But 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:53.000 it's it's a fair question, and we're engaged constructively here 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.279 and around the globe with regulators on it. You have 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.919 more than a hundred billion dollars of cash um on 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.839 your balance which a lot cash um. Why do you 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:03.840 need all that cash? Why not just div it ended out? 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:05.960 Or are you going to use it for investments? So 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:07.720 at the end of the second quarter we actually had 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.960 a billion, but who's counting? So you're you're right. Um. 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.960 When I got to Google, there had been a longstanding 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:20.520 view that it was helpful to have cash because of 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:25.440 the optionality it provided. And I think the question I 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:27.400 post was how much is too much and how much 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.280 is too little? And can we actually try and um 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:34.960 to mention that analytically and put together you know, the 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:40.160 data that led to a conversation about beginning a sherry 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:44.320 purchase program. And it started small, but we've now increased 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.040 it five times in the last number of years. Um. 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.119 The last one we just did in the second quarter. 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:53.360 It's billion dollar authorization and I'm you know, so it's 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:57.200 been a journey and we've we've been increasing the return 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.840 of capital. Um. You know, I've spent a big chunk 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:04.360 of my career covering firms like Carlisle private equity firms, 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.680 so I do appreciate what an efficient capital structure looks like. 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.520 And this is really trying to um get the balance. 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:13.360 So let's talk about your background for a moment. How 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.800 you came to be the CFO of Google Alphabet and 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.400 before that, Morgan Stanley. So where did you grow up? So? 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.679 I was born in England, mostly grew up in Silicon Valley. 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:29.960 My father was a Holocaust survivor Holocaust refugee. He escaped 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.760 from Vienna right after Crystal Knock when when he was 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.200 a teenager, he was sixteen. He had no high school education, 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:41.160 he had no college education. Obviously. He escaped to Palestine 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:43.400 and as soon as he could he enlisted in the 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:45.920 British Army fought under Montgomery. He was in the Two 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.560 Battles of Alaman, and his view was that the only 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.440 way to find peace in a peaceful place was to 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:57.000 have a skill that people needed. So he decided to 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:00.360 teach himself physics while in the army. And he used 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:02.480 to always tell us as kids that his fellow soldiers 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:04.839 would would tease him and say, you will die before 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.440 you can ever use this physics. And his answer was 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.080 always if I die, I want to die. And educated 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.360 man and after the war he was one of the 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.160 lucky ones. Um. He was given a place at the 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:19.079 University of Manchester. He got a master's degree at PhD 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:23.000 that's where I was born um, and then was given 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:25.320 a position at Harvard. The only two places he ever 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.880 worked was Harvard and Stamford, and so we moved eventually 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:30.880 to Silicon Valley, and that's where I grew up. So 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:33.600 you went to Stamford undergrad I did, and did you 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.880 major in finance? I majored in economics and international relations, 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:39.440 and thought I would go off and be a lawyer, 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:42.120 just like you. Okay, well you were smart not to 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.120 do that, but but you did go to Wharton NBA school, right, 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:46.959 and you've got an NBA from Wharton and you went 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:50.680 to Wall Street. Well, when I actually went from Stamford 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.120 to the London School of Economics to Wharton, I assumed 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:56.040 I would be a consultant. When I started in business school, 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.280 I was convinced that what I wanted to do was 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:01.200 work with companies and helped them understand their problems. But 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.880 then I took a fascinating course and a great teacher, 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:06.760 and he opened my eyes to this thing called Wall 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:09.200 Street and mergers and acquisitions, and I got excited. So 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:11.760 I went from completely convinced I was doing one thing 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.200 to completely convinced the only thing I wanted to do 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:17.160 as mergers. When you went to Ultimate to Morgan Stanley, 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:22.920 was it women? Far from it um? When I started 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.320 Morgan Stanley was seven, and so it was sort of 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:30.000 the Stone Age for um for any sort of sense 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.199 of what was the role of women in banking. In fact, 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.679 I think that general attitude was that those of us 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.680 who were there would get married, have kids and leave. 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:41.800 We didn't have the stamina. It was just a question 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:43.800 of time. And I loved Morgan Stanley, I think more 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.920 instantly was the best of the best. But that was 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.319 sort of the Ethos on Wall Street, and in fact, 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.840 a couple of years into my career, I was working 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.120 on a deal and I was out with a partner 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:58.880 and a client. I was pregnant with our first child, 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.520 and the partner actually turned to the client said, Ruth 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.600 may come back after the first child, but there's no 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.040 way she'll come back after the second child. Unfortunately, the 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:10.440 client liked me a lot more than he liked this 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:12.840 partner and basically told him he was an idiot. But 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.679 that really made an impression on me, and the thing 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:20.120 that was inspiring and helpful and critical in my career 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.840 as there were so many extraordinary men who really bet 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.240 on me help open doors. You know, I didn't know 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.240 at the time those were sponsors, but that's what they were. 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:33.000 You became the CFO and at some point you're one 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.560 of the most important people Morgan Stanley, and the US 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:37.760 government calls up and says, why don't you come and 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.160 work at the Treasure Department, a very senior position. Did 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.520 you seriously consider doing that? Well? One of the most 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:45.960 meaningful parts of my career was in O eight when 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:51.439 two crisis, when UM Secretary Paulson asked me to lead 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.160 a team to help him with um the housing the 0:11:55.160 --> 0:12:01.160 booming housing crisis, and um UH spent the entire period 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:03.320 working on Fannie Mae and Freddie mac and then that 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:06.800 evolved into work on a I G. And I thought 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.240 it was extraordinary to be able to use skills I 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.880 developed over decades that Morgan Stanley for something so important 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.600 for the country, So that to me remains one of 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.320 the most meaning you're doing that as a employee of 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.079 as doing that. Okay, But Morgan Stanley also went through 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:23.880 a crisis during that period of time. I'm sure you 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:28.040 remember it, where Morgan Stanley was close to maybe not 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.880 being able to survive, and then a Japanese investor said, 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:33.720 we'll put in some money. It turned out that money 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.280 was at three times the stock price that you were 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.120 trading at, and people weren't sure whether the Japanese company 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.800 Mitsubishi would show up. Were you ever in doubt that 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.840 Mistsubishi would show up with that money. That was a 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:50.240 terrifying period of time. This series of events was there 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:54.960 was the Lehman Brothers famous weekend, followed by a call 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:57.920 I got from the Federal Reserve saying we had worked 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.160 on we collectively had worked on the wrong thing. We 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.040 needed to focus on A I G. And asked me 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:07.319 to get back down to the Federal Reserve that Sunday evening. 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:10.360 Um they said A I G would be out of 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.959 money by Wednesday. In fact, it was Tuesday when they 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.120 were out of money. And that's the point at which 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:22.560 Morgan Stanley was running into its own very severe liquidity crisis. 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.800 Morgan Stanley obviously prospered through the period of time. They survived, 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:29.920 and you did quite well. And then someday somebody called 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:31.360 you up. I don't know who it was. Was it 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.640 a headhunter? Was it somebody from Google saying we'd like 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.600 you to be considered to be the CFO. UM. Were 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:40.200 you surprised at that offer because you were a Wall 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.800 Street person, you weren't a technology person. So actually it 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.480 was a very different path to the question. I was 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:50.840 on the Stanford board and had the opportunity to spend 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.480 some time with Bill Campbell, who was an iconic coach 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.960 to so many people, to Larry to Sergeate, to Eric Schmidt, 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.600 to Steve Jobs. And I left the board meeting and 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:03.160 went to his home and sat down with him to 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:07.920 talk about life generally, and he started probing kind of 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.079 what next, what would I want to do? And um 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.560 my comment and was I didn't know. At some point 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:15.640 I would want another chapter. But one thing I knew 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.120 for certain is I would not leave Morgan Stanley at 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.040 CFO to be a CFO anywhere else. And for two 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.840 hours he kept kind of coming back to that strong assertion, 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:28.800 and at the end of two hours he said, okay, 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.600 so you wouldn't leave to be a CFO anywhere else? Correct? 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:33.600 And I'm adamant correct, And he said that I have 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:35.800 the perfect job. You should be the CFO of Google. 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:38.960 And of course the two of us burst into laughter, 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:43.280 and I said, well, that one I would do. And 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.800 and I didn't believe it. I left his home and 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:49.000 didn't actually believe it was real or that it would happen. 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.040 And within a couple of hours he called and said, 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.640 go over to Larry Page's house and spend some time 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:56.520 with him, see if this works. Right. She went over 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:58.520 to see Larry Page, and he said, guess what I 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:00.040 just heard about you? And I wanted you to be 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.360 the CFO. So I had known him. I worked on 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.160 the Google ipeo and had had different interactions through the 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:08.640 Stanford board. We spent two hours. It was this broad 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:13.160 conversation fascinating, as Larry Page always is. I left again 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.080 not actually believing that it would happen, and quickly everything 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.640 came together. So you took the position. But now you're 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.600 going to be breaking into another world where women are 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.480 not that prominent. Was it harder break into the technology 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:29.520 world as a woman or as a harder break into 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.360 the financial world as a woman? Well, when I broke 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:34.440 into the financial world, I was junior, and I think 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:37.120 it's harder when you're junior then when you're coming in 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.480 as somebody who's credentialed. But if the question were broadly's 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:44.320 which world is tougher, Wall Street or um Tech? You 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.640 both have evolved meaningfully since those days of the boys 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:52.240 Club on Wall Street that UM we're so painful, and 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.320 I think there's a much greater awareness that it's not 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.400 just the right thing to do to have diversity and 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:01.360 senior ranks throughout an organization, but it leads to better 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:04.600 outcomes UM and so I think that they're actually pretty similar. 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:09.120 The difference is there's it's a more collaborative environment um UM. 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:11.960 In tech, I would say a Well Street can be 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:16.040 pretty pretty rough, but the more testosterone filled place is 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:20.920 Wall Street or Silicon Valley. Um, there's a lot of testosterone. 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.200 There's enough to go around. So when you get there, 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.360 you're a fairly buttoned down CFO of Morganstown. That you're 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:29.160 very precise and so forth. Google is probably a less 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.160 precise place when you get there, right. That's they're making 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:33.680 so much money and not have to worry about every 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.200 little dollar. I guess, so, did you say we've got 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:38.040 to change things, and that people say we don't want 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.320 to change, we're doing well, or that people say, yes, 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.880 we want to change. So throughout my career my view 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:48.320 has been if you actually anchor your points in data, 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.880 it becomes very easy to engage people and what is 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:55.080 the issue and what's the proper path forward. And one 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:57.720 of the extraordinary things at Google is we have very 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:01.720 smart and very inquisitive people. So as I laid out 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:06.680 whatever issue it is anchored in data, it engaged the conversation. UM. 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.800 And so I actually didn't find it to be discordant. 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:13.280 In fact, I was really impressed with the view of yes, 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:15.879 throw in the new idea, well, let us understand what 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.320 and why? Um, And it's you know, it's been a journey. 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:21.680 So Alphabet, it is the parent company. You're the CFO 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:25.080 of that. You're also the CFO of of Google. Google 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:28.560 is the search engine, and that is still massively profitable 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:30.639 by anybody's standard. I assume, I don't know if you 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.360 like the word massive, but but it's profitable, right, it's 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.280 doing all right. What about cloud computing? Your number three 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:38.440 in that business but catching up to I guess the 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.200 number one is Amazon, number two is Microsoft. But is 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.480 that important growth engine as well? You think it's a 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.600 very important one. It's a sizeable market. We think, in 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.439 very very early innings, UM, the opportunity for businesses to 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:55.399 migrate to the cloud provides them with extraordinary added capabilities 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.359 and they're looking to us, whether it's for security or 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.560 data analytics or a I that's what we're able to 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.800 do working with with customers. And you've really seen the 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:09.280 important migration to the cloud. So we're investing meaningfully in it. 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:11.320 We do see it as a sizeable opportunity. And one 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:14.040 of your areas of focus at Google and Alphabet is 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:17.320 healthcare and health related UM, why is that such an 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.600 important focus, uh of the founders and you UH? In 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:23.840 terms of healthcare? Why is that so important to you healthcare. 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:28.080 We have the opportunity with technology to make a fundamental 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:33.199 difference in healthcare, in particular with AI, in a host 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.760 of areas. For me personally, I'm a breast cancer survivor. 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.760 I've had breast cancer twice. I've had gone through chemo twice, radiation, 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.920 more surgery than than one could imagine. And I view 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:46.639 myself as one of the really lucky ones. I was 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:49.560 here in New York City when I was first diagnosed. 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.040 I was treated at Memorial slum Cattering. I had the 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:55.080 best care, and here I am healthy, as healthy as 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:59.200 I've ever been. Not everybody gets that, that break and 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:03.360 that a year two ago. Um I remember when our 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:08.600 AI engineers had a breakthrough in early stage detection of 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:13.160 metastatic breast cancer with AI, which struck me as precisely 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:17.159 the kind of thing that is transformative. And there is 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:19.879 so much debate in the world about whether AI is 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:21.640 a positive or not, and I wanted to make sure 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.919 I got an objective, non tech view of this. So 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:28.439 I called my oncologists to ask whether I was reading 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:30.600 this the right way, and it really had the impact 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:34.960 I expected, And his answer was, you cannot democratize healthcare 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:40.199 without AI. So we look at this as this opportunity 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:45.000 to democratize healthcare, to provide service, to identify diseases earlier, 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.280 to do things like telehealth that enables everybody to get 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:50.840 the kind of care that I was able to have. 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.720 That's why I'm passionate about it. Now, somebody's watching this 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.080 man or a woman says, all right, she's a leader. Um, 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:00.119 she must have some qualities that I would like to 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:02.800 know about more. What are the qualities that you think 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:04.960 are important to be a leader. So I think one 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.840 of them is it's very important to be able to 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:12.119 make clear decisions anchored and data. It's the way you 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:14.520 can build support for the ideas. Is the way you 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.119 can know where to double down on great opportunities for 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:19.960 the long term where you should be pulling back. So 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.919 it starts with data analytics. I think the other is 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:26.200 integrity and building a culture that makes it really clear 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.880 that you expect the highest quality, performance and integrity at 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:34.639 all times from your people. UM. I would say that 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.960 that the other is making it really clear that you 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.439 want diverse views, that you build a diverse team, and 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:45.879 that you're open to UM not only open, really expect 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.920 diverse views and debate. Uh you know. To me, I've 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.440 often been asked how do I think about rising stars? 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:54.720 And my answer is I want someone who's in my face. 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.520 I want somebody who challenges me. And I think creating 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:01.359 an environment where there's that open to discussion is really 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:05.160 um is really important. So some people say it's very 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:07.680