Google exec visits Detroit for the first time. Here are her impressions.

A top Google executive said Monday that she was impressed by her first-ever visit to downtown Detroit over the weekend and revealed she has a long-standing love for Shinola products, especially the Detroit-based brand's notebooks. 

Google Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, among the world's highest-profile female technology executives, spent Sunday in Detroit before her presentation Monday morning in Taylor about the tech giant's "Grow with Google" workforce training initiative.

Porat said she was impressed with the energy and development momentum that she saw during a walk through downtown Detroit, and during her al fresco dinner at the Parc restaurant in lively Campus Martius Park.

“We were sitting outside, and you had that fabulous beach area and the fountains — there was a vitality around it. It was great to be there," Porat recalled in an interview Monday at Taylor Community Library. "I love getting the sense of what a city is like."

The English-born Porat, 62, who is ranked by Forbes as the 21st most powerful woman in the world, said it was nice to see the development progress along Woodward at the old Hudson's department store site, where local billionaire Dan Gilbert is constructing what would be the tallest tower in the city.

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She said she admired the new Shinola Hotel near the Hudson's site, although her own hotel reservation was at the Westin Book Cadillac.

"Seeing the amount of construction, with the big building that is going up, to the new Shinola Hotel and the energy there, I think it’s consistent with our view that we should be here," Porat said in reference to Google's Detroit office at nearby Little Caesars Arena.

Porat joined Google in 2015 following a long career at investment bank Morgan Stanley. Google agreed to pay her a $70-million-plus compensation package, according to news reports.

On Monday, Porat also shared with reporters her affection for products from Shinola, a luxury goods company that started in Detroit in 2011. Porat said she visits the Shinola store in Palo Alto and is especially fond of the brand's leather-bound notebooks.

“They’re the perfect size," said Porat, who is also CFO of Google's parent company, Alphabet. 

She hinted at a possible visit later to one of the Michigan Shinola stores. On Sunday, when Porat walked by the Shinola Hotel, the retail shop there was already closed for the day.

"I was sorry the store was closed, so maybe we can get something today," she said.

ContactJC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.