Arora betting big

Nikesh Arora, Softbank's president and CEO, has agreed to buy 60-bn yen ($483 mn) in company shares from his own pocket, while SoftBank paid the "rising star" a whopping $135 million (Rs 850.5 crore) as compensation in 2014. A brief look at the man who will take over from Masayoshi Son

MOVES AT SOFTBANK...

• Since Arora joined the company SoftBank has made nine investments, including the recently announced $100-million stake the US geolocation advertising technology company Banjo and a $250-million stake in GrabTaxi, an Uber competitor in Southeast Asia
• As part of their India investments, SoftBank made an investment of $627-million in Snapdeal.com, a $90 million in housing.com. SoftBank with Bharti Enterprises and Taiwan's Foxconn, will also invest about $20 billion in solar projects in India, in one of the biggest investment pledges to date in the country's renewable energy sector
• Masayoshi Son,the founder and current CEO of SoftBank, has already spoken publicly of his plan to see Arora succeed him

LIFE AT GOOGLE…
JOINED GOOGLE IN 2004

• Arora was Senior Vice-President and Chief Business Officer of Google since January 2011
• Previously he held multiple senior operating leadership roles at Google, serving as President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development from 2009 to 2010, President, Europe, Asia and Africa from 2007 to 2009 and Vice-President, Europe Operations from 2004 to 2007
• Since 2007, Arora has also served as a Senior Advisor to Silver Lake Partners, a PE firm

LIFE BEFORE GOOGLE…

• From 2001 to 2004, Arora served as Chief Marketing Officer of the T-Mobile International Division of Deutsche Telekom AG
• He was CEO and Founder of T-Motion PLC, which merged with T-Mobile International in 2002
• Arora began his career at Fidelity Investments in 1992, holding a variety of finance and technology management positions, ultimately serving as Vice-President, Finance of Fidelity Technologies

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Holds a master's degree from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University, both of which were awarded with distinction
• He is also a qualified CFA
• In 1989, Nikesh graduated from the Institute of Technology in Varanasi, with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering

Sources: Google, Bloomberg, Fortune and Forbes