Infy's Vishal Sikka Set To Become The Highest Paid IT CEO

Infosys will pay Vishal Sikka about Rs 30 crore as he takes over as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. This makes Sikka the highest paid information technology (IT) CEO.

The Bangalore-based software company will pay $9,00,000 as base salary and $4.18 million as variable pay to the former SAP board member, the company told the Bombay Stock Exchange in a filing. Sikka would also get another $2 million in restricted stock unit.
Sikka was earning $5.75 million, including salary and other benefits, at his earlier company, SAP, the German software company.

"The salary is comparable to the compensation of the top CEOs in the world's largest companies," said Conrad Prambock, head of compensation consulting, Pedersen & Partners. "The salary of the new CEO of Infosys is high by Indian standards but in line with the top CEOs on a global level," he added.

Historically, CEOs at Infosys never got high salaries because the job always went to founders whose shareholding in the firm compensated for their relatively low salary.