Inspiring Journey Of A Former Google Executive Who Is Now A Billionaire
Chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh Arora, former president and chief operating officer of SoftBank Group Corp. and Google’s highest-paid executive, who is known for inciting great ideas in his team and is a catalyst for many significant initiatives, has now turned to be a billionaire.
Being an MS in Business Administration from Northeastern University, an MS in Finance from Boston College, and a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from Banaras Hindu University, Arora served as president and chief operating officer of SoftBank Group Corp. before joining Palo Alto Networks in June 2018, where he struck a $250 million deal for a minority stake in Legendary Entertainment after an unsuccessful attempt at partnership with DreamWorks Animation, sources told Reuters.
It is worth noting that during his tenure as president and CEO of Softbank, Aroroa made investments in Indian entities like Snapdeal, Ola, Grofers, Housing.com, and Oyo Rooms. Ken Miyauchi, head of SoftBank’s Japanese telecommunications operations, replaced Nikesh Arora as president and chief operating officer, who stepped down from the post in 2016.
At Google, being one of the most powerful Google executives, Arora”s areas of responsibility included sales, marketing, and partnerships, and he was the highest paid in 2012, when he made $51 million in cash and stock.
There are some other instances that show his impeccable decision-making prowess, such as when he advocated for Google to take over Netflix, which had a market cap of roughly $3 billion at that time, while he was leading the tech giant”s senior executive team. Substantiating his claims, Netflix experienced massive expansion as it currently stays at a $27 billion valuation.
Arora also advised Google to acquire LoveFilm,a UK-based streaming video company, which was later acquired by Amazon. Prior to Google, Nikesh helmed the T-Mobile International Division of Deutsche Telekom AG as chief executive officer and founder of T-Motion PLC, which merged with T-Mobile International in 2002.
His managerial prowess spanned to other ventures too, such as Sprint Corp., Colgate-Palmolive Inc., and Yahoo! Japan, among others, where he served on the boards.
