Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar's annual compensation saw a significant 28% increase, reaching $21.5 million in 2025, as detailed in the latest proxy statement filed with US regulators, highlighting executive pay trends at the Nasdaq-listed IT services giant.
Key Points
- Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar's annual compensation for 2025 increased by 28% to $21.5 million.
- Kumar's compensation included $1.3 million in salary, $15.8 million in stock awards, and $4.4 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation.
- Cognizant CFO Jatin Dalal's compensation decreased by 30% to $7.08 million for the same period.
- Dalal's compensation comprised an $825,000 salary, $4.84 million in stock awards, and $1.39 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation.
- Kumar's realised compensation of $10.7 million was lower than his target of $19 million due to future vesting of PSU grants.
Cognizant chief executive Ravi Kumar's annual compensation jumped up by 28 per cent to $21.5 million for 2025, from a year earlier while that of chief financial officer Jatin Dalal's dropped 30 per cent to $7.08 million, as per the latest proxy statement filed with the US regulators.
Executive Compensation Details
Kumar and Dalal, along with John Kim, chief legal officer, Surya Gummadi, president of the Americas business, and Ganesh Ayyar, president of Asia Pacific and Japan and industry solutions group are the five top compensated executives in the Nasdaq-listed company.
Kumar, who joined Cognizant three years ago after a long stint with rival Infosys, earned about $1.3 million in salary which was up 9.2 percent.
Besides this, he earned $15.8 million in stock awards, and $4.4 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation last year.
Unlike 2023, he was not rewarded with a bonus this time.
Realised vs Target Compensation
However Kumar's realised compensation for 2025 was $10.7 million for the year, against his target compensation of $19 million.
"Kumar's realised compensation was significantly lower than his target direct compensation primarily because his 2025 PSU grants are scheduled to vest, subject to the satisfaction of performance criteria, in future periods.
"His 2025 realised compensation consisted principally of his base salary, 2025 ACI award payout at 169 per cent of target and quarterly vestings of RSUs in the aggregate amount of approximately $4,988,000," the proxy statement said.
CFO's Compensation Overview
Dalal, the long-time CFO with Wipro, saw his salary zoom to $825,000 from $750,000, a year earlier.
He got $4.84 million in stock awards and $1.39 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation.
He did not get a bonus unlike the last two years.
Just like Kumar, Dalal ended up getting $6.63 million, against his target of $6 million.
