This Former SoftBank COO May Be One of the Highest Paid U.S. Executives Soon

Nikesh Arora, the former COO of SoftBank, has been awarded a whopping $128 million to lead Palo Alto Networks.

The former SoftBank executive is set to start work at the network security firm on Wednesday, June 6th.
With the package, Aurora, 50, may be one of the highest paid U.S. executives. He will also be entitled to equity awards as high as $126 million when he takes over as CEO.

Roughly half of this will vest only if the firm’s shares more than double, while the rest is tied to his remaining on the job.

At his new job, Aurora will receive $1 million in salary, a $1 million target bonus and $40 million of restricted stock that vests over seven years. Aurora is also entitled to receive stock options valued at $66 million that will vest in increments if the company’s shares climb at least 150 percent. He’ll get all of them if the price of the stock quadruples.

The former CEO of the company, Mark McLaughlin, was the fifth-highest paid U.S. executive back in 2015 according to data from the Bloomberg Pay Index.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) and have not been compensated for this article.