Here Are Nutanix’s Most Highly Compensated Execs In 2023

Nutanix’s top four executives reported more than $31 million in total compensation in fiscal year 2023 in a year in whcih the company says it generated $1.56 billion in annual recurring revenue.

There are big moves happening at hyperconverged infrastructure all-star Nutanix, from its new partnership with Cisco Systems, its shift to cash-positive financials and stock buyback, as well as the market share it said it hopes to gain as customers look for VMware alternatives.

The company will hold a non-binding vote for shareholders on Dec. 8 that will determine whether Nutanix public owners will give their blessing to the $31.1 million in cash and stock that the board gave the greenlight to award its top four corporate officers.

Nutanix generated $207 million in free cash flow on the back of $1.5 billion in revenue in its fiscal year 2023. The San Jose, Calif.-based company underlined its confidence during its Aug. 30, 2023, year-end earnings call with an announced $350 million stock buyback.

The company’s new partnership with Cisco gives Nutanix reach into the networking giant’s customer base. Meanwhile, Broadcom’s move to purchase VMware has been providing a steady pipeline of concerned customers who are interested in how Nutanix stacks up versus the Palo Alto, Calif. virtualization powerhouse.

It’s adding up to what Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami called a “tailwind” that should propel the cloud infrastructure leader to $3 billion in revenue and $700 million to $900 million in free cash flow by 2027.

Even so, the company does have its challenges, including the fact that Nutanix is still losing money on a GAAP basis. In fiscal year 2023, the company reported a net loss of $254.6 million, down from a net loss of $1 billion two years before.

The named executive’s total compensation this year are weighted with more securities than cash.

The following is a list of Nutanix’s top compensated executives in fiscal year 2023.

Tyler Wall

Chief Legal Officer

Total Compensation Fiscal Year 2023: $5.2 million

Tyler Wall’s 2023 total compensation of $5.2 million was up 44 percent from the year before. It was split between $4.3 million in stock awards and $872,229 in cash.

Wall joined Nutanix in December 2017. He also has worked at Red Book Connect and, like Nutanix COO Sangster, also spent time at Brocade.

There he led a team of 30 lawyers, contract managers and compliance staff. He has previously held legal roles at other tech companies including Chordiant Software,and Oracle.

Rukmini Sivaraman

CFO

Total Compensation Fiscal Year 2023: $5.6 million

Sivaraman’s $5.6 million compensation in 2023 was 5 percent less than she earned the previous year. It was divided into $825,744 in the form of cash with another $4.7 million in stock.

Sivaraman was promoted to CFO in April 2022 at an annual salary of $475,000.

David M. Sangster

COO

Total Compensation Fiscal Year 2023: $5.6 million

The longtime COO’s total compensation was up 17 percent from a year ago, with the $5.6 million coming from a salary and bonus of $872,229 plus stock awards of $4.7 million.

Sangster has been Nutanix’s COO for more than a dozen years. He joined the company on Oct. 17, 2011, and was awarded an option to buy 350,000 shares of Nutnanix Class A stock, which was exercised and has vested and is worth $12 million as of Thursday trading.

Sangster is responsible for all aspects of manufacturing and customer support. He previously had roles at EMC where he was vice president of manufacturing operations for two years. Hs also has worked at Brocade.

Rajiv Ramaswami

President and CEO

Total Compensation Fiscal Year 2023: $14.8 million

Ramaswami’s $14.8 million total compensation in fiscal year 2023 represented an increase of 14.7 percent over the previous year. It was split between $1.6 million in cash and $13.1 million in stock.

Ramaswami has been leading the company since December 2020, when he left a top role at VMware. Ramaswami said since then he has turned the company from “bleeding cash” to free cash flow positive. The company also reached $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue in its fiscal 2023.

Ramaswami has also been leading the company’s biggest technological innovations, such as Project Beacon and the company’s GPT-in-a-box, which condenses Generative AI deployments.

On stage in May at the company’s annual .NEXT conference, Nutanix demonstrated using Beacon to move a database from Amazon Web Services to Microsoft Azure with a single click.

Ramaswami said this will give partners the ability to break down silos that now block customers from optimizing for cost and performance by choosing where to place workloads and applications.