Professional CEOs crowd million-dollar-salary club

Mumbai: With uncertainty becoming the new normal in global business, India Inc is increasingly leaning on professional CEOs to steer companies and handing them million dollar pay cheques as they power growth in the era of the unknown.

Among CEOs taking home a million dollars (over Rs 8 crore) or more across BSE 200 companies, the count of professional leaders has surged nearly 71% to 145 in FY25 from 85 five years ago (see graphic). The promoter CEO count has largely remained flat in the same period, going up to 65 from 60, data shared by global executive search firm Stanton Chase with TOI showed.

“Five years ago, promoter-led companies dominated many sectors. Today, professional CEOs are leading most of India’s large businesses and earning a premium. Boards want leaders who bring independence, experience across cycles, and the ability to manage complex global expectations. This trend is a sign of India Inc becoming more institutional and future-focused,” said Amit Agarwal, MD, India & Singapore at Stanton Chase.

The IT/ITes space leads the million-dollar CEO cohort — the sector recorded the biggest jump in compensation in the last five years followed by manufacturing at 34%. Former Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte tops the list with Rs 168-crore compensation in FY25, followed by Persistent Systems CEO Sandeep Kalra with Rs 148-crore pay. Among promoter CEOs, Pawan Munjal, CMD at Hero MotoCorp leads with Rs 109-crore compensation, the study showed.

Professional CEOs are increasingly replacing promoter-led leadership not because promoters are disengaging, but because the needs of modern businesses have evolved, said Vibhav Dhawan, partner at Positive Moves. A once-in-a-generation pandemic and wars aside, trade protectionism and rising geopolitical uncertainties have upended corporate India’s rule book and go-to strategies.

“India is getting integrated with the global economy very well. This was not the case 10 years back. Businesses are becoming far more complex and multi-functional which is why there’s a rise in professional CEOs,” said Anshuman Das, CEO and founder at Longhouse. Besides, private equity investors are joining the cap table of large businesses, driving some changes in the way companies operate and overhauling governance structures, said Das.

The million dollar pay cheques, however, are not coming easy. Instead of increasing fixed salaries, boards have shifted to performance-linked pay, increasing the burden of accountability. Fixed compensation declined to about 31% in FY25 from 35% in FY21.

“More of a CEO’s earnings now depend on actual outcomes, including profits, cash flow and resilience. It’s a much more accountability-driven model than before,” said Mala Chawla, MD, India at Stanton Chase.

The average CEO compensation grew to Rs 10 crore in FY25 from Rs 9.3 crore in FY21 with the total compensation jumping to Rs 4,700 crore from Rs 2,700 crore in the same period. The growth in the million-dollar club has to do more with Indian companies becoming bigger and more profitable, not because compensation is being aggressively inflated, said Chawla.

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