Shankh Mitra, the CEO of Indian origin is the second highest paid in the world after Elon Musk
From studying engineering in Kolkata to leading a major US real estate company, Shankh Mitra has emerged as one of the highest-paid corporate leaders in the world.Welltower’s Indian-origin CEO has been ranked as the second-highest paid CEO in the world, according to the Wall Street Journal’s latest report, ‘Highest-Paid CEOs Break $200 Million Payday’.Mitra’s total compensation package for 2025 was estimated at $821 million, putting him behind only Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose pay package was $158 billion.The ranking shows a sharp recovery in executive compensation after a slowdown in recent years. The Wall Street Journal reported that more CEOs earned at least $100 million in 2025 than in any year since 2021, with nearly a dozen topping the $200 million mark.Mitra’s journey to the top began in India. He graduated from Jadavpur University with a Bachelor of Engineering in Instrumentation and Electronics Engineering before moving to the US to pursue an MBA in Applied Value Investing from Columbia Business School.He began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked for five years. He then moved into investment management, joining Fidelity Investments as an analyst in 2009. He has held positions at Citadel and Millennium Management, specializing in real estate securities and portfolio management.In 2016, Mitra joined Welltower, an S&P 500 real estate investment trust focused on senior housing and healthcare properties.
He became chief investment officer in 2018 and was named CEO two years later. At the time of his appointment, Lead Independent Director Jeffrey H. Donahue praised his leadership, saying: “Over the past five years, Shank’s investment and operational acumen…has positioned the company in a position of strength.
“In response to his promotion, Mitra said: “I am honored and humbled to serve as CEO of Welltower and lead this great team as we begin the next chapter of our journey.
I am grateful to Tom for his guidance and partnership, and deeply appreciate the trust placed in me by the Board of Directors and my colleagues.”According to the Wall Street Journal, almost all of Mitra’s compensation came in the form of stock awards. About 99 percent of his salary was tied to stock awards, including a $789 million award issued in October. By the end of the year, the value of the shares associated with this award was more than $1 billion.Return is linked to long-term performance. Mitra is expected to get roughly half the shares in 2031 if he stays with the company. The remaining shares will depend on Welltower increasing its market capitalization by 45 percent and outperforming several stock market indexes over a five-year period. The report also noted that three other Welltower executives received compensation packages worth more than $100 million each, making the company only the second in a decade to have four executives receive nine-figure pay packages in a single year.The highest-paid CEOs include George Kurtz ($248 million), Hock Tan ($205 million), David Zaslav ($165 million), and Stephen Schwarzman ($126 million).Another Indian-origin CEO featured in the top 10: Nikesh Arora, who ranked eighth with a $100 million compensation package.