Mr. Nikesh Arora (ECE ’89)

Mr. Nikesh Arora and Palo Alto Networks have established the IIT (BHU) Foundation Access Fund with a $2Million endowment, allowing underserved students to prepare for technology careers.Mr. Nikesh Arora, a 1989 graduate from the Electrical Engineering department at Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, is currently the chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of Palo Alto Networks.

Mr. Arora took up a job with Wipro following his graduation from IIT (BHU) but quit it soon in order to pursue his higher education in the United States. In 1992, he joined Fidelity Investments as an analyst. He holds a master’s degree in finance from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He simultaneously completed his CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) in 1995.  In the year 2000, he founded T-Motion PLC, a firm that provides value-added services for Deutsche Telekom‘s newly announced 3G services. T-Motion was merged with Deutsche Telekom as a subsidiary of T-Mobile within two years. A former senior executive at Google, he has also previously served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of SoftBank Group Corp. At Google, Mr. Arora served in numerous capacities, including as a Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer. Mr. Arora was also facilitated with the Global Indian award at the ET Corporate Excellence Awards in 2015.

In making the gift, Nikesh expressed his vision behind the IIT (BHU) Foundation Access Fund . He said, “As alumni, we know first-hand of the school’s remarkable programs, facilities and faculty. Together with Palo Alto Networks, I’m proud to support IIT (BHU) as it broadens access to education and prepares future leaders in critical areas of technology- I look forward to many more of us joining together in support.”

Of the $2 million donation, Arora will forgo his annual salary to contribute $1 million, with Palo Alto Networks contributing an additional $1 million.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: PANW) is a Santa Clara, California-based international cybersecurity corporation. Palo Alto Networks offers a cybersecurity platform for businesses that includes network security, cloud security, endpoint protection, and other cloud-based security services. The company serves over 70,000 organizations in over 150 countries, including 85 of the Fortune 100. The Unit 42 threat research team is based there, and the Ignite cybersecurity conference is held there every year.
The Forbes Digital 100 ranked Palo Alto Networks eighth in 2018.