Who is Shankh Mitra? Indian-origin CEO with ₹7,000-crore pay package ranked world’s second-highest paid executive
Indian-origin executive Shankh Mitra, $821 million (approx. ₹He was the second highest-paid executive among S&P 500 companies at ₹7,061 crore. Wall Street Journal annual ranking
The Welltower CEO ranked just behind Tesla chief Elon Musk, whose reported compensation package was $158.4 billion. While Musk remains at the top of the list, Mr. Mitra’s compensation is among the largest awarded to the chief executive of a publicly traded company in the past decade.
₹7,061 Crore Compensation Places Shankh Behind Elon Musk
Executive salaries saw a strong recovery in 2025, with more top executives earning packages worth more than $100 million in 2021 than in any year since 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Among these, Mr. Mitra stood out with his compensation package worth 821 million dollars. The amount also highlighted its wealth-creating potential, with the value of underlying stock awards already exceeding $1 billion, subject to long-term performance conditions.
He heads US-based Welltower, a real estate investment trust focused on high-end housing and healthcare infrastructure.
Nearly Entire Pay Package Linked to Equity Rewards
Almost all of Mr. Mitra’s salary is performance-related rather than cash-based.
Nearly 99 percent of his total package came from stock donations, including a $789 million equity award in October, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“At Welltower, 99% of Mitra’s compensation came from stock grants, including $789 million awarded in October. The shares underlying the award were worth just over $1 billion as of year-end, the company said.”
The stock award comes with long-term conditions. If Mr. Mitra continues to work at the company, approximately half of the shares are planned to be transferred in 2031. The remaining shares are contingent on Welltower increasing its market value by 45 percent and outperforming most stock market indexes over a five-year period.
From Jadavpur University to Lider Welltower
Born and raised in India, Mr. Mitra completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Instrumentation and Electronics Engineering from Jadavpur University before moving to the United States for higher education.
He later earned an MBA in Applied Value Investing from Columbia Business School.
Mr. Mitra began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers before moving into investment management. Over the years, he held senior investment roles at Fidelity Investments, Citadel Investment Group and Millennium Management, where he worked as a portfolio manager focusing on real estate securities.
At Millennium Management, he led a team of investment professionals responsible for bottom-up underwriting, security selection, quantitative portfolio management and risk management of commercial real estate companies and their portfolios.
He joined Welltower in 2016 as Senior Vice President of Finance and Investments and subsequently rose to the positions of President of Investments, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Investment Officer. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer in October 2020.
Nikesh Arora Also Featured in the Top 10
Another Indian-origin executive in The Wall Street Journal’s ranking was Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, who ranked eighth with a total compensation of $100 million.
Mr. Arora received his B.Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from Banaras Hindu University Institute of Technology and subsequently completed his Masters in Business Administration from Northeastern University in the United States and Masters in Finance from Boston College.
Before joining Palo Alto Networks, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer at SoftBank Group and spent nearly a decade at Google, eventually becoming Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
The world’s highest-paid CEOs include CrowdStrike Holdings’ George Kurtz, Broadcom’s Hock Tan, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon also appear.
The report stated that Figma CEO Dylan Field’s $864 million compensation package was not included in the ranking because the company is not part of the S&P 500.
While the compensation package attracts global attention for Mr. Mitra, much of his value remains tied to long-term stock performance and the company’s growth targets, making him dependent on Welltower’s future performance rather than immediate cash gains.
