Jayshree Ullal, the Indian-origin CEO and chairperson of cloud-networking company Arista Networks, has taken the top spot on Hurun’s 2025 ranking of the richest Indian “professional managers”—overtaking far more widely recognized Silicon Valley leaders such as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google/Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. [1]
The headline is striking precisely because it flips the usual assumption: if you asked casual observers to name the wealthiest Indian-origin tech leader, most would guess Nadella or Pichai. Hurun’s 2025 data suggests the biggest fortune among Indian-origin tech executives is currently tied to the less consumer-facing (but increasingly critical) world of data-center and AI networking. [2]
What Hurun’s 2025 ranking says
According to NDTV’s summary of the Hurun India Rich List 2025 “professional managers” ranking, Ullal’s estimated net worth stands at ₹50,170 crore, placing her at No. 1. Nadella is listed next at ₹9,770 crore, while Pichai is ranked seventh at ₹5,810 crore. [3]
Fortune India, reporting on the broader M3M Hurun India Rich List 2025, adds important context: “professional managers” are only a slice of the overall rich list. It notes that sixteen professional managers appear on the 2025 list—and that Ullal is the richest among them. [4]
Who is Jayshree Ullal? From New Delhi classrooms to a global networking CEO
Ullal’s biography reads like a classic cross-continental tech-leadership arc—rooted in India, forged in U.S. engineering and Silicon Valley execution.
NDTV reports that Ullal was born in London on March 27, 1961, moved to India at age five, and attended the Convent of Jesus & Mary in New Delhi before relocating to San Francisco. NDTV also notes that her father worked with India’s Ministry of Education and contributed to the creation of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). [5]
On her academic background, The Times of India reports she earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical/electronics engineering from San Francisco State University and a master’s in engineering management from Santa Clara University (completed in 1986). [6]
Arista’s own leadership profile describes Ullal as the company’s founding CEO since 2008, crediting her with guiding Arista through its IPO in June 2014 and scaling it into an S&P 500 company (the company claims a $100B+ market cap in its bio). [7]
That same Arista bio highlights her pre-Arista résumé: she was previously a Senior Vice President at Cisco, responsible for a $10B data-center, switching, and services business. [8]
Why Arista Networks has been a wealth engine
Hurun’s ranking ultimately reflects a key reality of modern executive wealth: equity ownership can matter far more than salary.
NDTV reports Ullal owns around 3% of Arista’s stock, with part earmarked for family trusts. [9]
Arista’s financial momentum helps explain why that stake can translate into an outsized net-worth figure. In its year-end results announcement, Arista reported 2024 revenue of $7.003 billion, up 19.5% versus fiscal 2023, alongside GAAP net income of $2.852 billion. [10]
Arista’s CFO, Chantelle Breithaupt, tied that performance to investment capacity, saying the company exceeded guidance in Q4 and generated “over 95% year-over-year growth in operating cash flow” for the quarter—supporting continued investment in “the AI and Campus markets.” [11]
The AI data-center buildout is also increasingly central to Arista’s story. In an Investopedia report on Arista’s Q1 FY2025 results, Ullal said: “AI, cloud, and enterprise customers continue to drive network transformation.” [12]
That same report underscores how closely Arista’s growth narrative is linked to hyperscalers and AI infrastructure spending. Investopedia notes that Meta and Microsoft were estimated to account for about 40% of Arista’s sales, and cited Citi analysts arguing that big AI infrastructure investment plans helped ease worries that spending might be cut. [13]
The “professional managers” lens: why this list looks different from founder-rich lists
A major reason this Hurun ranking surprises readers is that it is not simply a list of the richest Indian-origin people in tech. It is specifically a ranking of professional managers—senior executives whose wealth is typically derived from compensation and, crucially, public equity holdings.
Fortune India’s reporting shows how the “professional managers” cohort sits inside a broader national wealth picture: the M3M Hurun India Rich List 2025 includes 1,687 individuals across 91 cities who each have wealth worth ₹1,000 crore or more. [14]
Hurun’s own framing of the project emphasizes a broader mission around transparent wealth creation: “The Hurun India Rich List aims to inspire and foster a broader culture of wealth creation.” [15]
In other words: you can run one of the world’s most influential companies and still rank below an executive whose company’s stock performance—and personal ownership slice—creates a larger personal fortune.
Where Nadella and Pichai rank—and the other names in Hurun’s top 10 professional managers
The Economic Times’ recap of the Hurun India Rich List 2025 “Richest Indian Professional Managers” list provides a fuller picture of who sits alongside Ullal in the top tier.
Beyond Ullal (₹50,170 crore), ET reports:
- Satya Nadella (Microsoft) at ₹9,770 crore (No. 2)
- Nikesh Arora (Palo Alto Networks) at ₹9,190 crore (No. 3)
- Ignatius Navil Noronha (Avenue Supermarts) at ₹6,570 crore
- Ajaypal Singh Banga at ₹5,970 crore and Thomas Kurian at ₹5,900 crore
- Sundar Pichai at ₹5,810 crore, and Indra K. Nooyi at ₹5,130 crore
- Shantanu Narayen (Adobe) at ₹4,670 crore and Ajit Jain (Berkshire Hathaway) at ₹2,950 crore [16]
This lineup reinforces what Hurun’s “professional managers” category captures: not only current tech CEOs, but also senior global executives and leaders whose wealth is closely tied to equity, long-term incentive structures, and investments.
What Ullal’s No. 1 spot says about the current wealth cycle
Ullal’s rise to the top of the professional-managers list also fits a broader narrative: infrastructure is having a moment. The consumer-facing AI boom is powered by huge, capital-intensive backend buildouts—chips, data centers, cloud platforms, and the networking fabric connecting them.
Hurun India’s founder and chief researcher, Anas Rahman Junaid, framed the 2025 list as evidence of a structural shift in how wealth is being created in India and among Indian-origin leaders globally: “Today, we’re seeing more from manufacturing and nearly 100 startup founders—from space tech to AI.” [17]
Ullal’s position also stands out in another way: her wealth is tied not to founding a consumer internet platform, but to scaling an enterprise infrastructure company through cycles—cloud, then AI—while holding meaningful ownership along the way. [18]
The bottom line
In late December 2025 coverage, multiple outlets converged on the same takeaway: the most widely known Indian-origin CEOs (Nadella and Pichai) are not currently No. 1 on Hurun’s 2025 “professional managers” ranking. Instead, that spot goes to Jayshree Ullal, Arista Networks’ long-serving CEO—whose estimated wealth Hurun pegs at ₹50,170 crore. [19]
It’s a reminder that in today’s market, executive wealth is often less about brand visibility—and more about where the equity is compounding.
References
1. www.ndtv.com, 2. www.ndtv.com, 3. www.ndtv.com, 4. www.fortuneindia.com, 5. www.ndtv.com, 6. timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 7. www.arista.com, 8. www.arista.com, 9. www.ndtv.com, 10. investors.arista.com, 11. investors.arista.com, 12. www.investopedia.com, 13. www.investopedia.com, 14. www.fortuneindia.com, 15. hurunindia.com, 16. m.economictimes.com, 17. www.fortuneindia.com, 18. www.ndtv.com, 19. www.ndtv.com
