- Nikesh Arora’s daughter Ayesha will marry Jack Hughes in a four-day wedding in Jodhpur
- Nikesh Arora, born in Ghaziabad, studied engineering, finance, and earned an MBA in the US
- Arora held top roles at Google, SoftBank, and is CEO of Palo Alto Networks since 2018
Indian-origin billionaire Nikesh Arora's daughter Ayesha is set to marry Jack Hughes in a four-day celebration in Rajasthan's Jodhpur. The wedding will be held at the Umaid Bhawan Palace on Saturday.
High-profile guests include US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. Security has been tightened across venues.
Private festivities began February 25 with a Holi celebration at Bal Samand Palace, followed by the sangeet at Mehrangarh Fort.
Who Is Nikesh Arora?
Nikesh Arora was born on February 9, 1968, in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. His father served in the Indian Air Force. He attended The Air Force School in Delhi's Subroto Park and completed his B.Tech from Banaras Hindu University in 1989, as per his LinkedIn profile.
After graduation, Arora briefly worked at Wipro. He then moved to the United States at age 21 for higher education. He earned an MBA from Northeastern University and a Master of Science in Finance from Boston College in 1994. He managed his studies on a scholarship and limited funds.
Arora started his career at Fidelity Investments in 1992. He worked in finance and technology roles and eventually became Vice President of Fidelity Technologies.
He reportedly received hundreds of job rejection letters before joining Fidelity Investments. Arora earned a CFA certification and master's degrees to strengthen his profile. To date, he keeps those rejection letters as a reminder to keep moving forward, he told Humans Of Bombay last year.
In 2000, he founded T-Motion, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG. The company later merged with T-Mobile International. Arora also served as Chief Marketing Officer for T-Mobile International.
In 2004, he joined Google. He held several positions over ten years, including President of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, President of Global Sales Operations and Business Development, and Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer. He was reportedly Google's highest-paid executive at the time, with a pay deal of $57.1 million in 2013.
In 2014, Arora joined SoftBank Group Corp as Vice Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Internet and Media. He also served as President and Chief Operating Officer of the group. He worked under CEO Masayoshi Son and was expected to succeed him. He received $208 million in compensation over two years. He resigned from SoftBank in 2016 after a two-and-a-half year stint.
Arora joined Palo Alto Networks as Chairman and CEO on June 1, 2018. When he joined, the company was valued at around $18 billion. Under his leadership, the company's valuation grew to approximately $118 billion.
He has served as a Non-Executive Director of Uber Technologies since June 2025. He served on the boards of HeadSpin (2018-2024) and MoveWorks (2021-2024).
He was also on the boards of SoftBank Group, Sprint Corp, Colgate-Palmolive, Yahoo! Japan, and Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, among others.
Arora has received multiple awards and recognition. These include ET's Global Indian of the Year (2015) and CRN's Top 100 Executives “Most Influential”. Under his leadership, Palo Alto Networks was ranked top on Newsweek's 100 Most Loved Workplaces in 2022.
In 2024, The Wall Street Journal listed him as the second-highest-paid CEO in the US, with a compensation of $151.43 million.
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