Nikesh Arora: Decoding the latest entrant to the Billionaire Club

Amassing wealth with strong stints: Indian American businessman and Chairman cum CEO of Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh Arora is latest entrant to billionaires club after his net worth crossed $1.5 billion.

Arora, based in California, helms Santa Clara-based cybersecurity company he joined in 2018.

Once a Googler

Before Palo Alto, Arora was known to take highest amount home from Google as ir Chief Business Officer in 2004, even after overseeing non-engineering roles like sales, marketing and partnerships. He rose to be one of most powerful Google executives, and most paid in 2012 when he me $51 million (Rs 424 crores) in cash and stock combined.

Arora h also placed his bets on Netflix and LoveFilm, former valued 9 times lesser at $3 billion back n, for Google’s acquisition. While Netflix rose to be most coveted streaming platform valued at $27 billion today, LoveFilm was eventually acquired by Amazon in 2011.

He continued in American search engine giant before being poached by SoftBank as ir President and COO.

SoftBank’s Almost Top Boss

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He was touted to succeed Masayoshi Son, legendary investor, and became world’s best paid executive after he received a $135 million first-year compensation package that broke Japanese records.

During his tenure at SoftBank, Arora struck a $250-million deal for a minority stake in Legendary Entertainment, after an unsuccessful attempt at partnership with DreamWorks Animation, Reuters h reported citing sources.

He was replaced by Ken Miyauchi, he of SoftBank’s Japanese telecommunications operations as president and chief operating officer after Arora stepped down in 2016.

Right Place, Right Time?

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55-year-old’s latest stint gave Arora $125 million in stocks, which jumped multifold to $830 million after cybersecurity software became more relevant for businesses, especially during high-profile ransomware incidents that surged during pandemic.

se stocks combined with pay awards in his career and over 3.4 million options awarded while joining Palo Alto, which offers a platform that includes vanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls to cover or aspects of security

Arora sold nearly $300 million worth of shares last year after exercising his options, becoming a rare non-founder billionaire tech CEO as per Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Money Keeps Flowing

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Arora’s compensation for last year at Palo Alto Networks includes 7.5 lakh stocks, valued at over $220 million (around Rs 1833 crore). company justified compensation in a proxy statement, saying Arora earned it on back of strong performance in past 5 years. 
If calculated, Arora pocketed $102 million (around Rs 849 crore) of value each year.

Palo Alto Networks has a market cap of more than $ 91 billion.

Indian Touch

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Arora, during his tenure at SoftBank, was behind investments in e-commerce platform Snapdeal, cabs to EV scooters company Ola, delivery platform Grofers (now Blinkit), Housing.com and Ritesh Arora’s Oyo Rooms.

As per his LinkedIn, Arora in 1985 enrolled for his bachelors in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, Uttar Presh.

Arora donated $2 million (Rs 16 crore) to Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), which contributed in 77 scholarships combined with donation of ors.

Six days ago, he posted on LinkedIn: “Dear IIT BHU Alumni and friends of IIT BHU. $6M is not a lot if everyone spared some pre-tax dollars to support students at Institute we could cover all those in need. Remember this is a means based scholarship and students need to be part of creme de la creme in India to pass JEE exam. It is important for us to support all students who deserve a stellar engineering education. scholarship is intentionally named Alumni Fund to ensure we are all equal in our donor status irrespective of whatever one chooses to spare. “

Arora was born in NCR region of Ghaziab, son of an Indian Air Force officer. He completed his schooling at Air Force School.

Beginnings

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Nikesh helmed chief marketing office for T-Mobile from 2000 to 2004, as per his LinkedIn.
T-Mobile was International Division of Deutsche Telekom AG.

He later became chief executive officer and founder of T-Motion PLC, which merged with T-Mobile International in 2002.

He initiated his professional journey at Fidelity Investments in 1992, leaving as Vice President before he joined T-Mobile.

Besides SoftBank Group Corp, Arora has also served on boards of Sprint Corp, Colgate-Palmolive Inc and Yahoo! Japan.

He has an MBA in Marketing from Norastern University in Boston, United States and a Master of Science in Finance and General from Boston College.

Arora was bestowed an honorary PhD in Business, Commerce and General by his alma mater, Norastern University.