Not Sundar Pichai or Satya Nadella, THIS Indian-American is on the US’ highest-paid CEOs list

Nikesh Arora, the Chairman and CEO of the American cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks, is the only Indian-American to be mentioned among the top 10 highest-paid CEOs in the United States.

Arora was ranked 10th on the list, pursuant to a report released by data analytics firm C-Suite Comp.

The firm published two lists of the highest-paid CEOs on Monday. They were based on two criterias – “total compensation actually paid” and “total compensation granted” in 2023. Neither Sundar Pichai, the Indian-origin executive officer of Google, nor Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, were named in either of the list.

In contrast, Nikesh Arora made it onto both the lists. He ranked tenth on the “2024 top 10 US-based CEOs Compensation Actually Paid (CAP)” list with earnings of about $266 million. He was number 4 on the list of “top 10 US-based CEOs Total Compensation Granted” with an income of approximately $151 million.

Top 10 highest-paid CEOs according to Compensation Actually Paid (CAP)

1. Elon Musk -Tesla- $1.4 billion

2. Alexander Karp -Palantir Technology Inc. - $1.1 billion

3. Hock E. Tan -Broadcom Inc.- $767.7 million

4. Brian Armstrong -Coinbase Global, Inc.- $680.9 million

5. Safra A. Catz -Oracle Corp- $304.1 million

6. Brian Chesky- Airbnb Inc.- $303.5 million

7. Jon Winkelried -Tpg Inc.- $295.1 million

8. Jeff T. Green -Trade Desk Inc.- $291.7 million

9. Adam Foroughi - Applovin Corp.- $271.3 million

10. Nikesh Arora -Palo Alto Inc.- $266.4 million

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc. ranked at the top of the list, with his income coming up to $1.4 billion, the highest among the executives of Silicon Valley.

Who is Nikesh Arora?

Nikesh Arora has been the CEO and Chairman of Palo Alto Inc. since June 2018, prior to which he served as the president and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp. He has had a decade-long career and several positions under his belt at Google, preceding which he was the chief marketing officer at T-Mobile.

Arora was born to an Indian Air Force officer, and completed his schooling at Air Force Public School in Delhi, reports say.

He pursued a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU). He went on to do an MBA degree in Marketing from Northeastern University, and an MSc in Finance from Boston College, as per his LinkedIn profile.