Nikesh Arora


Nikesh Arora is an Indian-American business executive. He is the chief executive officer and chairman of Palo Alto Networks. Arora was formerly a senior executive at Google. He served as the president of SoftBank Group from October 2014 to June 2016. On June 1, 2018, Arora took on the role of CEO and chairman at Palo Alto Networks.

Education

Born to an Indian Air Force officer, Arora completed his schooling from The Air Force School, and went on to graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, BHU in Varanasi, India with a Bachelor of Technology degree in electrical engineering in 1989. He holds a degree from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University. He also holds the CFA designation in 1999.

Professional career

T-Motion PLC

In 2000, Arora established T-Motion PLC, a company that "provides value-added services to the 3G Services of Deutsche Telekom." A few years after, in 2002, T-Motion PLC merged with Deutsche Telekom.

Google

Arora joined Google in 2004. He held multiple senior operating leadership roles at Google, serving as vice president, Europe Operations from 2004 to 2007, President Europe, Middle East and Africa from 2007 to 2009, and President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development from 2009 to 2010. He was Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Google Inc. since January 2011 until July 2014.
He left Google in July 2014 resigning from the post of Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer.

SoftBank Corp.

As President & Chief Operating Officer of SoftBank Corp. Arora received over $200 million in compensation over the last two years" while at the head of Softbank's operations. This pay package made him the world's highest paid executive.

Other Experiences

Arora has served on the board of directors at Aviva, Airtel, Colgate-Palmolive, Richemont Sprint, Softbank,
The Harlem Children Zone, Tipping Point and Yahoo Japan. While at Softbank - due to their investing in Ola, Grabtaxi, Didi, Snapdeal, Oyo, Coupang, Guardant, Supercell etc. - he is also CFA which had played a prominent role in his life.
Arora worked as Chief Marketing Officer and as a Member of the Management Board at T-Mobile, Bharti Airtel, Europe. and serves as a Trustee at the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles, California.
Since 2007, Arora has also served as a senior advisor to Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm.
From 2001 to 2004, he served as Chief Marketing Officer of the T-Mobile International Division of Deutsche Telekom AG. He was Chief Executive Officer and Founder of T-Motion PLC, which merged with T-Mobile International in 2002.
Arora began his career at Fidelity Investments in 1992, holding a variety of finance and technology management positions, ultimately serving as vice president, Finance of Fidelity Technologies.
Nikesh Arora worked for Deutsche Telekom, Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments.