Meet Shankh Mitra, the Indian-origin CEO who is the world’s second-highest paid after Elon Musk

It’s a great time to be an Indian. Days after it was announced that India’s Kunal Shah, the founder of CRED, would be WhatsApp’s new CEO, it has been reported that Indian-origin Shankh Mitra is the world’s second-highest paid CEO, only behind Elon Musk.

In a report titled ‘Top-Paid CEOs Smash the $200 Million Payday’, the Wall Street Journal listed the highest-paid CEOs and reported that there was a clear rebound in payouts following a post-2021 slump. Notably, more CEOs made $100 million or more in 2025 than in any year since then, said the American newspaper.

As the list becomes headlines the world over, here’s a deep dive into the life of Shankh Mitra, the CEO of real estate investment trust Welltower.

Who is Shankh Mitra?

Mitra has been at Welltower, an S&P 500 company, since 2016. He became the company’s chief investment officer in 2018 and two years later became the CEO.

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However, his path to the top of Welltower has been long and arduous, and began in India. He completed his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Instrumentation and Electronics Engineering from Jadavpur University in Kolkata, West Bengal.

Following his graduation, he moved to the Land of Opportunity — the US — and earned an MBA in Applied Value Investing from Columbia Business School.

After completing his education, Shankh began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked for five years.

It was after this stint that Shankh moved into investment management. In 2009, he joined Fidelity Investments and was an analyst there for three years. He then went on to Citadel Investment Group and Millennium Partners, focusing on real estate securities and portfolio management.

In 2016, he joined Welltower, which is a real estate investment trust focused on senior housing and healthcare. And in the following years, climbed up the career ladder. “Over the past five years, Shankh’s investing and operational acumen… have put the company in a position of strength,” said lead independent director Jeffrey H Donahue in October 2020, when the Welltower board appointed Mitra as CEO.

Mitra took over as CEO from Thomas J DeRosa, who stepped down after six years. Speaking at the time, Mitra said, “I am humbled and honoured to serve as CEO of Welltower and to lead this remarkable team as we embark on the next chapter of our journey. I am grateful to Tom for his mentorship and partnership, and I deeply appreciate the confidence and trust the Board and my colleagues have placed in me.”

What is Shankh’s pay package at Welltower?

According to the WSJ report, Mitra is the second-highest paid CEO with an $821 million package. It’s interesting to note that this is a paltry amount compared to what Elon Musk earns as the highest paid CEO — $158 billion from Tesla.

Of Mitra’s total compensation, stocks made up the largest component. WSJ reported that 99 per cent of Mitra’s pay came from stock grants, including $789 million awarded in October.

In 2031, Mitra will receive about half the shares in 2031 as long as he stays, and the rest if Welltower’s market value rises 45 per cent and the company’s shares beat multiple stock indexes by a wide enough margin over five years.

Importantly, WSJ’s ranking didn’t include non-S&P 500 companies. If included, then design-software company Figma CEO Dylan Field’s pay package of $864 million would be ranked second.

Who else made it to the list?

George Kurtz of Crowdstrike Holdings came in third with a compensation of $248 million. Fourth is Hock Tan of the semiconductor giant Broadcom ($205 million).

David Zaslav of Warner Bros Discovery with a reported compensation of $165 million is ranked fifth.

Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman hit sixth with $126 million and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon scored seventh at $119 million.

Are there other Indian CEOs on the list?

Mitra isn’t the only Indian who is among the highest-paid CEOs. The ranking reveals that Nikesh Arora of Palo Alto Networks is eighth on the list. He earned a total compensation of $100 million.

For those who are unaware, Arora was also born in India, earning a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University. He later moved to the US and completed an MS in Business Administration from Northeastern University and an MS in Finance from Boston College.

Before his career shot off at Palo Alto Networks, Arora served as president and Chief Operating Officer of SoftBank Group between 2014 and 2016. He also worked at Google for almost a decade.

With inputs from agencies