USA (Commonwealth Union)_ Indian-origin business leaders are increasingly taking prominent positions and achieving highly in some of the world’s biggest companies, competing with leading executives in the Western corporate world. Accordingly, Indian-origin CEO Shankh Mitra is one of the best examples, ranking among the highest-paid CEOs of S&P 500 companies in 2025. Mitra, CEO of Welltower, a major US real estate investment trust focused on healthcare infrastructure, received a compensation package valued at $821 million, according to an annual ranking by The Wall Street Journal. Only Tesla CEO Elon Musk ranked higher. While Musk’s reported compensation was far larger, Mitra’s position highlights the growing influence of Indian-origin executives in global business.
Mitra’s journey to the top began in Kolkata. He studied Instrumentation and Electronics Engineering at Jadavpur University before moving to the United States for an MBA in Applied Value Investing from Columbia Business School. His career developed through some of the most competitive names in finance. He began at PricewaterhouseCoopers and later worked as an analyst at Fidelity Investments. He then moved to Citadel Investment Group, where he gained experience in investment management, portfolio strategy and risk analysis. Before joining Welltower, Mitra was a portfolio manager for real estate securities at Millennium Management. He joined Welltower in 2016 and became its chief executive in October 2020.
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Mitra’s reported $821 million compensation, however, does not represent a traditional annual salary. Nearly 99% of the package came through stock awards. About $789 million was awarded in shares in October, with the value of those shares rising to more than $1 billion by the end of the year. The massive award also comes with conditions. Roughly half of the shares are expected to vest in 2031 if Mitra remains with Welltower. The other half depends on the company achieving significant growth in market value and outperforming major stock market indices over a five-year period. Mitra is not the only Indian-origin executive making headlines in the US corporate sector. Nikesh Arora, the CEO of Palo Alto Networks, also ranked among the world’s highest-paid executives, with a compensation package of about $100 million.
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The rise of leaders such as Mitra and Arora reflects a broader shift in global corporate leadership. Indian professionals who began their careers in India are increasingly moving into senior positions at major Western companies, competing at the highest levels of finance, technology, healthcare and other industries. For Mitra, the journey from an engineering degree in Kolkata to one of America’s biggest corporate boardrooms shows how international education, financial expertise and leadership can open doors at the highest levels of global business. His story also underlines a larger trend: Indian-origin executives are no longer simply participating in Western corporate success, they are increasingly helping lead it.
