Second highest paid CEO!

The second-highest paid CEO!

• Salil Parekh is the CEO and MD of Infosys, India’s leading Information Technology giant.
• Infosys CEO had always been media-shy but his current remuneration has been making headlines. Salil Parekh, gets a total remuneration of Rs 66.25 crore for the fiscal year 2024. This places him just behind Wipro's former CEO Thierry Delaporte, who earned approximately Rs 166 crore in FY24. With roughly about Rs. 18 lakhs earning per day, Parekh is the second highest paid CEO in the IT sector.
• The significant increase in Parekh's salary is largely due to Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), a form of equity compensation given to employees. Out of his total compensation, Rs 39.03 crore came from RSUs. Additionally, he received Rs 7 crore as salary, Rs 47 lakh as retirement benefits, and Rs 7.47 crore as a bonus.
• In 2017, Salil Parekh took over from the CEO UB Pravin Rao and the only factor he banked on was ‘Stability’

Degrees resulting in the numbers

• Salil Parekh has a BTech in Aeronautical Engineering from IIT-Bombay.
• Masters in Computer Science & Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.
• Infosys boss began his career as a Partner at Ernst & Young (EY) from 1992 to 2000 with the firm’s Financial Services practice.
• He has also been associated with leading business consulting and professional services firm Capgemini since 2000 after it acquired EY’s consulting division. Salil occupied several positions during his tenure with Capgemini, including appointment as deputy CEO in March 2015. He is also a member of the company’s Executive Committee.
• Salil is only the second non-promoter CEO of Infosys after Vishal Sikka, who occupied the position for three years.

Parekh remediated Infosys

• Despite the warmest welcome, Salil Parekh took over the chair amidst tensed air. The upsetting public spat between Infosys’s founders and then CEO Vishal Sikka, severely dented the confidence of both clients and investors.
• Parekh had a tall task at hand and what played on his favour was his level-headedness. His balanced approach towards the promoters as well as the investors eventually brought the company back on the growth trajectory.
• Growth rates have quadrupled, revenues and profits were burgeoning, big deals and bigger clients climbed at a fast clip, and high profit margin levels show Infosys managed to retain its traditional strength. Market cap has climbed 216.87% to Rs 7.12 lakh crore on 25th February from2nd January, 2018, the day Parekh walked into Infosys’s corner room as its CEO & Managing Director.

Editor’s Note

It is often believed that the IT sector CEOs reign supreme in terms of remuneration compared to their counterparts in other industries. Having said that is it really rational to rule over the singular journey of anybody seating on that high raise chair brimmed with complexities. Salil Parek walked in not at the best phases of the IT major but with his own skillset he managed to recast the operation. The paycheque surely matters but the corner room CEO who spiked the shares will stay irreplaceable.