Our Bureau
Santa Clara, CA
The Wall Street Journal released a list of the highest-paid CEOs in US and the Indian-origin CEO of Palo Alto Network, Nikesh Arora, came second on the list with an impressive compensation of $151.43 million. Notably, Nikesh Arora’s compensation was much higher than Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s $24.40 million and Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s $8.8 million.
56-year-old Arora now leads Palo Alto Networks which is an American multinational cybersecurity company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The core product is a platform that includes advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls to cover other aspects of security.
An IIT BHU alumni, Arora has worked with Google and Softbank before. He became the highest-paid executive at Google in 2012 when the company hired him with a $51 million package. Nikesh Arora had stock awards worth at least $200 million at the end of his Google term. During his decade-long tenure at Google, Arora oversaw sales, marketing and partnerships. During his tenure, he struck a $250-million deal for a minority stake in Legendary Entertainment. According to reports, Arora had advocated for Google to acquire Netflix in 2009. He had also proposed the acquisition of LoveFilm, a UK-based streaming video company that was later acquired by Amazon in 2011,
During his time at Softbank Group, Arora also set a new record in Japan with a mammoth first-year compensation package of $135 million.
He joined Palo Alto Networks in 2018. “Because of this significant vested ownership and the amount that Mr. Arora was projected to vest in over the next several years, the Board determined that a meaningful equity award would be necessary to ensure that such award retains and engages Mr. Arora,” Palo Alto Network said last year.
He holds an MS in Business Administration from Northeastern University, an MS in finance from Boston College and a B. Tech in electrical engineering from the Institute of Technology at Banaras Hindu University.
