Just off the phone with Ruth Porat who is still
CFO but now has two additional jobs that she's got
to do as well. Eventually she will hand over
and she says, look for now I'm remaining in
the role. But remember she was CFO of Morgan
Stanley before she came to Google. Now alphabet,
of course, longest serving CFO at the business.
So she wants a new challenge. I think what's
interesting is her new challenge is going to be talking
to policymakers. He used to do that. But
this is all about how we see the adoption of
artificial intelligence, how we see business models, how
we see M and A, how we see basically
their business is contributing to economic growth. She says
, so she's going to be CFO up until September
the first when this got this newly created role that
is going to be Cio and president and she's going
to remain with the business until they find a successor
. I'm gonna put you on the spot here because
when I see that type of resume that she has
and this promotion that she has, the next question
everybody has is, is she on her way to
being CEO she not, she, she actually funny
. I really wanted to focus on the numbers and
we all kept peppering her with more and more questions
as to why she's moving on to be president.
And indeed, I did, I did take her
at face value when she says she wants a new
challenge and I did take her at face value when
she says I want to get back to that conversation
. I was good at when I was a Morgan
is policy making. When I was on Wall Street
. That was part of my discussion with policymakers.
This is a time that big woman ever needs to
understand what Congress, what lawmakers in Europe in the
US are thinking about and how she can persuade them
that they continue to be as big, as powerful
as they are and continue to iterate in generative A
I in a way that is constructive for society.
She wanted to focus on the numbers and the numbers
are pretty good, especially if you look at the
core business, which is advertising, I mean alphabet
is an advertising company. What did she say or
what did she indicate about the willingness of advertisers to
continue to spend? We were still trying to put
her on the spot about that. The question being
, has it bottomed yet? She said I'm not
going to go there, but she is very proud
of the 5% growth that they're seeing an advertisement and
particularly youtube look, that is an area that has
managed to rebound. So we're seeing advertisers come back
to that particular platform. And I think she is
sort of trying to say we are showing resilience,
resilience, resilience, resilience is the word that keeps
coming up. She can't speak for the rest of
the sector. She can't speak for other really companies
and marketeers are feeling that much more buoyant, she
wouldn't call a recession, but she is feeling more
buoyant about the way in which they are continuing to
show growth back in the business. And that,
of course, is why I was so shocked that
perhaps she'd be passing over the reins of CFO.