Nikesh Arora (born February 9, 1968) is an

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

business executive. Arora was formerly a senior executive at

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

. He served as the president of

SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...

from October 2014 to June 2016. On June 1, 2018, Arora took on the role of

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and chairman at

Palo Alto Networks Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is an American multinational cybersecurity company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The core products is a platform that includes advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls to ...

Education

Born to an

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

officer, Arora completed his schooling from

The Air Force School (Subroto Park) The Air Force School (TAFS), formerly known as Air Force Central School (AFCS), was set up primarily to provide education to the children of Indian Air Force personnel. It was founded in 1955 by the Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, the Chief of ...

, and went on to graduate from

Indian Institute of Technology, BHU Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi (IIT BHU) is a public technical university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1919 as the Banaras Engineering College, it became the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu Univers ...

Varanasi, India Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic tr ...

, with a Bachelor of Technology degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

in 1989. He holds a degree from

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

and an MBA from

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

. He has held the CFA designation since 1999.

Professional career

T-Motion PLC

In 2000, Arora established T-Motion, a subsidiary within Deutsche Telekom, "providing value-added services to the 3G Services of Deutsche Telekom." A few years after, in 2002, T-Motion was integrated into T-Mobile's core services.

Google

Arora joined Google in 2004. He held multiple senior operating leadership roles at

, 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. (Google) since January 2011 until July 2014. He left

in July 2014 resigning from the post of

senior vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

and chief business officer.

SoftBank Corp.

As president and chief operating officer of

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

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 worked as chief marketing officer and as a Member of the management board at

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland (T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobile ...

Bharti Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as (d/b/a) Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, ...

, Europe and serves as a Trustee at the

Paley Center for Media The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York City, New York with a branch office in Los Angeles, ...

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 A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

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 Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...

Putnam Investments Putnam Investments is a privately owned investment management firm founded in 1937 by George Putnam, who established one of the first balanced mutual funds, The George Putnam Fund of Boston. As one of the oldest mutual fund complexes in the Unite ...

Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments, commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is on ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arora, Nikesh Google employees SoftBank people Living people Banaras Hindu University alumni Boston College alumni Northeastern University alumni CFA charterholders 1968 births 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople Indian emigrants to the United States American people of Indian descent American computer businesspeople Chief executives in the technology industry American chief executives American technology chief executives Computer networking people Thapar family