Nikesh Arora Biography
The Nikesh Arora biography begins with his rich education. He earned an M.S. from Northeastern University in Business Administration from 1990 to 1992; an M.S. from Boston College in Finance from 1992 to 1994; and a B.Tech from the Institute of Technology at Banaras Hindu University in electrical engineering.
Before he was Nikesh Arora Palo Alto Networks Inc. CEO, Nikesh Arora was an angel investor. Over his career, he’s held a variety of positions in high tech, climbing steadily through the ranks. Here’s a brief timeline of the work history of Nikesh Arora:
• January 2011 to June 2014 – Member of the Board of Directors of the public luxury goods holding company based in Switzerland Compagnie Financiere Richemont S.A.
• December 2004 to July 2014 – Various senior leadership positions at Google, Inc., including President of Global Sales Operations and Business Development, President of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer
• March 2012 to September 2014 – Member of the Board of Directors of worldwide consumer products company Colgate-Palmolive Company, concentrating on health care, personal care and household products’ provision, distribution and production
• June 2014 to June 2015 – Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of SoftBank Internet and Media, a subsidiary of multinational conglomerate company SoftBank Group Corp.
• 2014 to 2016 – Member of the Board of Directors of SoftBank
• November 2014 to June 2016 – Member of the Board of Directors of communications services company Sprint Corp.
• 2015 to 2016 – Member of the Board of Directors of internet company Yahoo! Japan
• July 2015 to June 2016 – Chief Operating Officer and President of SoftBank
• June 2016 to December 2017 – Advisor to SoftBank
In 2018, Nikesh Arora became Palo Alto Networks’ CEO and Chairman of the Board.
Other Board and advisory positions Nikesh Arora held in his time include at HeadSpin, Tipping Point Community, Harlem Children’s Zone and Senior Lake.
Any website’s Nikesh Arora about page will highlights his extensive experience in executive leadership positions at top, cutting-edge tech companies and in scaling technology businesses. Nikesh Arora’s portfolio currently includes nine companies.
As successful as he’s been in business, he’s never stopped being relatable and down to Earth. For example, ask Nikesh Arora about his plans for the future and, like he did in a 2016 tweet, he’ll tell you he’s happy to be “chilling” where he is for a while.
FAQ
Since 2014, Nikesh Arora has been married to Ayesha Thapar. She is a renowned Delhi socialite and CEO of Indian City Properties Ltd (ICPL). This is both their second marriages; Arora was previously married to Kiran Arora, with whom he has a daughter. On June 2, 2015, he and his current wife welcomed their son Kiaan into the world.
Nikesh Arora was born in Ghaziabad, India on February 9, 1968. That would make Nikesh Arora age as of the March 2022 time of this writing 54 years old. His father, Jagdish Kumar Arora, was an Air Force Officer. Nikesh Arora and his wife currently live in San Francisco, California.
The estimated Nikesh Arora net worth as of a late-November 2019 count was over $251 million. As of March 15th he owned nearly 479,500 shares of Palo Alto Networks Inc. stock. This approximation of his net worth approximation does not reflect other assets Nikesh Arora may have owned at the time.
As of February 1, 2022, that net worth has climbed to an estimated $305 million or more. He currently owns more than 3,125 shares of stock in Palo Alto Networks Inc., worth more than $296 million; in the previous decade, he sold more than $6.7 million shares of Palo Alto Networks Inc. stock. He also earns over $2.2 million annually as Palo Alto Networks Inc. CEO and Chairman of the Board.
Nikesh Arora started his career working his way up through several firms including Wipro, Deutsche Telekom, Fidelity Investments and Hellas Telecommunications before joining the team at T-Mobile, where he worked his way up to become Chief Marketing Officer for International Division of Deutsche Telekom AG. He, then, became Chief Executive Officer and Founder of T-Motion PLC. In 2002, that company and T-Mobile International merged.
