HCLTech CEO earns $11M in FY25, tops TCS, Infosys peers
What's the story
HCLTech's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) C Vijayakumar has earned a whopping $10.85 million (approximately ₹94.6 crore) for the fiscal year 2024-25. The amount makes him one of the highest-paid executives in India's IT industry and beats the salaries of his counterparts at bigger rivals Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys.
Pay hike
Salary set to increase further
The HCLTech board has approved a massive pay hike for Vijayakumar, increasing his current remuneration by over 71% to $18.6 million (approximately ₹154 crore) for the next fiscal year. This proposed structure would significantly increase both fixed and performance-linked components of his salary package, as per the company's annual report.
Information
How Vijayakumar fares against other IT CEOs
For the same period, TCS CEO K Krithivasan earned ₹26.52 crore while Infosys CEO Salil Parekh took home ₹80.62 crore. Wipro's CEO Srinivas Pallia and Tech Mahindra's Mohit Joshi also earned less than Vijayakumar with ₹53.64 crore and ₹53.9 crore, respectively.
Earnings details
Breakdown of HCLTech CEO's remuneration package
HCLTech's annual report reveals that Vijayakumar's total remuneration for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, included a base salary of $1.96 million and a performance-linked bonus of $1.73 million. The bulk of his earnings came from long-term incentives in the form of exercised Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) worth $6.96 million, along with an additional $0.2 million in benefits and perquisites.
Company performance
HCLTech market cap grew 3.8 times under Vijayakumar
Since taking over as CEO in 2016, Vijayakumar has been instrumental in driving HCLTech's market capitalization from ₹1,15,000 crore on March 31, 2016 to ₹4,32,000 crore on March 31, 2025. This reflects a growth of 3.8 times since FY16. In comparison, the market capitalization of the other four top Indian listed IT services firms among the top five has grown by approximately two-and-a-half times during the same period.