Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar salary: Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar’s total annual compensation rose to Rs 70 crore ($8.2 million) for the fiscal year 2024, according to the company’s recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Despite the increase, the company’s proxy statement highlighted that Mr Kumar’s realised compensation was lower than the target compensation of Rs 137 crore ($16.1 million) for 2024.
As per Cognizant, the shortfall was due to Mr Kumar’s Performance Share Unit (PSU) grants, which are yet to be vested. Consequently, Mr Kumar’s earnings in 2024 primarily comprised of base salary, Annual Cash Incentive (ACI) and quarterly vestings of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).
“The Compensation Committee determined that Mr. Kumar’s target direct compensation for 2024 should be increased to $16,100,000 (11% increase vs. 2023) to reflect his performance in his first year as CEO and to better align his target compensation with CEOs in the 2024 peer group, taking into account compensation trends for CEOs,” read the statement by company.
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While Mr Kumar’s compensation stood at $22.6 million in 2023, it was boosted by a significant one-time equity award granted at the time of his appointment.
“Mr Kumar’s realised compensation was significantly lower than his target direct compensation primarily because his 2024 PSU grants are scheduled to vest, subject to the satisfaction of performance criteria, in future periods.”
Notably, Cognizant’s CEO-to-median employee pay ratio stood at 378:1 in 2024, according to the company’s filing. This means Mr Kumar earned 378 times more than the median Cognizant employee.
As of December last year, Cognizant employs about 336,800 people worldwide, including 241,500 in India and 42,800 in North America.
Despite the dip in realised earnings, Mr Kumar’s compensation package reflects a steady rise in his salary — making him one of the highest-paid executives in the country. Mr Kumar, who pursued engineering at Shivaji University, Kolhapur, followed by an MBA from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, has previously worked at Infosys, where he served as president from 2016 to 2022.
