Here Are Nutanix’s 5 Highest Paid Execs; Pandey Ranks No. 3

CRN breaks down the highest paid executives at Nutanix in fiscal year 2020, including CEO Dheeraj Pandey and Chief Commercial Officer Tarkan Maner.

Nutanix’s Top Compensated Executives In FY 2020

The numbers are in for fiscal year 2020 salary and stock awards for the top five highest paid executives at Nutanix -- with the largest total sum of money not going to CEO Dheeraj Pandey, who plans to retire from the company in the near future.

CRN reviewed executive compensation data at Nutanix from a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Oct. 26 for fiscal year 2020, which ended July 31, 2020. The two main sources of compensation were base salary and stock awards.

It is key to note that due to the economic uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 global pandemic, Nutanix’s top executives voluntarily took a temporary 10 percent reduction in their base salary in April 2020. These base salaries were reinstated to their normal amounts in August.

Here are the top five highest paid executives at the San Jose, Calif.-based hybrid cloud and hyperconverged software star.

5. Tyler Wall

Chief Legal Officer

Fiscal 2020 Total Compensation: $1,837,589

Tyler Wall has served as Nutanix’s chief legal officer since Nov. 2017. Prior to Nutanix, Wall was senior vice president and general counsel at Software as-a-Service (SaaS) specialist Red Book Connect. Wall was also vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer for Brocade from 2005 to 2014.

Wall’s base salary was initially set at $425,000, up 6 percent compared to his fiscal year 2019 base salary. However, with the voluntary COVID-19 related salary pay reduction, Wall received a total of $403,589 for his salary in fiscal year 2020. In stock awards, Wall generated $1,434,000 in fiscal year 2020, making his total compensation roughly $1.84 million.

4. Duston Williams

Chief Financial Officer

Fiscal 2020 Total Compensation: $3,319,070

Duston Williams has been Nutanix’s chief financial officer since June 2014. He has more than 30 years of financial management experience, including 20 years as a CFO. Williams has led four companies through an IPO: Nutanix, Gigamon, Sandforce and Infinera.

Williams’s base salary was initially $475,000, up 6 percent compared to his fiscal year 2019 base salary. With the voluntary COVID-19 related salary pay reduction, Williams received a total of $451,070 for his salary in fiscal year 2020. Williams generated a total of $2,868,000 in stock awards in fiscal year 2020, making his total compensation roughly $3.32 million.

3. Dheeraj Pandey

Chairman, CEO

Fiscal 2020 Total Compensation: $4,634,811

Dheeraj Pandey, who plans to retire when a new CEO is hired, has been described as the “driving force” and “the spirit” of Nutanix by channel partners.

The chairman and CEO came to the U.S. from India in 1997 with $900 in his pocket, before founding Nutanix in 2009 and quickly becoming an innovator in the hyperconverged infrastructure market at the time. Over the past three years, Nutanix was able to successfully exit the hardware market and become a software-only company. Nutanix now has an annual software and subscription sales of well over $1.2 billion with annual billings of $1.6 billion, along with more than 6,000 employees.

Pandey’s base salary was initially set at $500,000, which was flat compared to his fiscal year 2019 base salary. With the voluntary COVID-19 related salary pay reduction, Pandey received a total of $474,811 for his salary in fiscal year 2020. Pandey generated a total of $4,160,000 in stock awards in fiscal year 2020, making his total compensation approximately $4.63 million.

It is key to note that on Oct. 7, 2020, Pandey sold more than 682,000 shares of Nutanix at an average price of $21.83 per share for a total stock sale of $14.9 million.

2. David Sangster

Chief Operating Officer

Fiscal 2020 Total Compensation: $5,231,070

David Sangster has been with Nutanix since 2011, first serving as executive vice president of engineering and operations before moving into his chief operating officer role in 2019. Sangster has over 30 years of product development and operations experience, serving in top positions for the likes of EMC and Hewlett Packard over his IT career.

Sangster’s base salary was initially $475,000, an increase of 19 percent compared to his fiscal year 2019 base salary. With the voluntary COVID-19 related salary pay reduction, Sangster received a total of $451,070 for his salary in fiscal year 2020. Sangster generated a total of $4,780,000 in stock awards in fiscal year 2020, making his total compensation approximately $5.23 million.

1. Tarkan Maner

Chief Commercial Officer

Fiscal 2020 Total Compensation: $16,404,489

Nutanix hired Tarkan Maner as its new chief commercial officer in November 2019, tasked with leading the company’s global business and corporate development with a focus on partnerships, system integrators and service providers. He is also responsible for leading Nutanix’s hybrid cloud strategy and product teams including AHV, software-defined networking and cloud services.

Maner previously served as chairman and CEO for Nexenta Systems, one of the groundbreaking developers of software-defined storage technology, which was acquired last year by DataDirect Networks (DDN). Prior to Nexenta, he was president and CEO of virtual desktop computing pioneer Wyse Technology that Dell bought in 2012.

When he was hired in November, Maner’s base salary was initially set at $450,000. With the voluntary COVID-19 related salary pay reduction, Maner received a total of $299,489 for his salary in fiscal year 2020. Maner generated a total of $15,955,000 in stock awards in fiscal year 2020. Additionally, Maner received a $150,000 bonus during fiscal year 2020, bringing his total compensation to roughly $16.4 million.

Stock compensation included in the proxy statement for Maner are ratable over four years provided he remains with Nutanix.