Nikesh Arora (born 9 February 1968) is an Indian-American business executive who is chairman and chief executive of the cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks. He was previously chief business officer of Google and president of Japan’s SoftBank Group, where he was among the highest-paid executives in the world and led its investments in Indian startups.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Nikesh Arora |
| Born | 9 February 1968, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Age | 58 |
| Occupation | Business executive |
| Position | Chairman and CEO, Palo Alto Networks (since 2018) |
| Education | The Air Force School, Delhi; IIT (BHU) Varanasi (B.Tech., 1989); Northeastern University (MBA); Boston College (M.S. Finance) |
| Spouse | Ayesha Thapar (m. 2014) |
Early Life
Arora is the son of an Indian Air Force officer and went to the Air Force School in Delhi. After a degree in electrical engineering at Banaras he worked briefly at Wipro and went to Boston for an MBA with little money, working in the evenings to support himself. He qualified as a chartered financial analyst.
Career
He worked as an analyst at Fidelity Investments and Putnam Investments, then moved to Deutsche Telekom, where in 2000 he founded T-Motion, a mobile data business, and became chief marketing officer of T-Mobile’s European operations.
He joined Google to run its European operations, became head of global sales and in 2011 chief business officer, responsible for the company’s revenue, which grew many times over in his decade there.
Masayoshi Son hired him as vice-chairman and then president, describing him as his likely successor. Arora led SoftBank’s investments in Snapdeal, Ola, OYO and Housing.com. His pay, reported at more than 200 million dollars over two years, made headlines. He resigned in June 2016 when Son decided to stay on as chief executive.
Appointed in June 2018 with no background in security, he bought more than a dozen companies and pushed customers to consolidate their security tools on one platform. The company’s value has multiplied under him, and in 2025 it agreed to buy the identity-security firm CyberArk for about 25 billion dollars, its largest deal.
Personal Life
He has a daughter from his first marriage. In 2014 he married Ayesha Thapar, a businesswoman from a Delhi industrial family, and they have children. He is a keen golfer and a part-owner of sports teams.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Nikesh Arora born?
Nikesh Arora was born on 9 February 1968 in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India and is 58 years old.
What is Nikesh Arora’s occupation?
Occupation: Business executive.
Featured image: Nikesh Arora at the Google Zeitgeist conference, May 2009. Photo by Loic Le Meur, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
