昔日谷歌软银高管转战Palo Alto Networks公司，明星CEO将有何动作？

尼科什·阿罗拉已经找到下一个舞台。今年6月6日，这位商界超级明星将出任Palo Alto Networks的首席执行官，而该公司俨然已成为网络安全领域最亮的一颗星。

可能还有人不了解阿罗拉，几年前《财富》杂志对他有过一番描述。他是一位顶尖管理者，前谷歌董事长兼首席执行官埃里克·施密特曾称他为“我共事过最擅长分析的商人”。他也是一位大手笔的投资人，在全球范围向大批初创公司投出了数十亿美元，比如“中国版Uber”滴滴出行和“印度版亚马逊”Snapdeal。他还是一位技术天才，日本电信集团软银的首席执行官孙正义曾指定他为接任者（但此后孙正义改变主意，决定再领导软银十年）。

哦，差点忘了，可能也是最有名的一点：《财富》曾将阿罗拉封为印度的“商界猫王”。

虽然阿罗拉在网络安全领域没什么经验，但他是打造企业巨头的老手。他曾担任谷歌的欧洲市场负责人，后来担任首席商务官，期间协助谷歌转型，从单纯出售广告转变为今时今日的盈利大户。他帮助互联网新贵谷歌加强纪律性，将不受拘束的能量转化为强大的商业实力。他在软银的时间不长，但期间软银成长为科技投资领域的大玩家，他也借此蜚声业内。

了解阿罗拉的经历后，我们也能预测他执掌Palo Alto Networks期间可能有何动作。过去一年，这家推出防火墙产品的公司股价暴涨90%，但亏损额也在增长。我猜测，阿罗拉主要目标是改善公司财务状况，而不是像之前一样不断收购，过去几个月该公司收购了云安全初创公司Evident.io和推出自动执行安全任务服务的Secdo。通过与Palo Alto Networks即将卸任的首席执行官、长期任公司副董事长的马克·麦劳夫林合作，阿罗拉将继续推动公司平台化。在平台上，开发者可以创造和开发安全软件和工具。他的目标是，让Palo Alto Networks保持业内领先，帮助过渡到亚马逊云服务平台Amazon Web Services等云技术的企业保障安全。

资本市场对阿罗拉即将接掌Palo Alto Networks响应积极。6月1日，该公司股价收报209.19美元，盘后交易期间涨幅超过3%。看来阿罗拉上任的消息让投资者相当激动。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

Nikesh Arora has found his next act. On June 6th, the business superstar is set to become the new CEO of Palo Alto Networks, a company that has proven itself as one of the brightest lights in the cybersecurity industry.

For those who may not know Arora, here’s a sleek portrait Fortune painted a couple of years ago. He is a top operator whom Eric Schmidt, the longtime Google honcho, once described as “the finest analytical businessman I have ever worked with.” He is a billion-dollar bet-maker who has plunked down gobs and gobs of cash on ascendant, international startups, such as Didi (the “Uber of China”) and Snapdeal (the “Amazon of India”). He is a techie talent whom Masayoshi Son, the famously hands-on CEO of Japanese telecom conglomerate Softbank, once named his successor (before “Masa” backtracked, opting to control his baby for up to another decade).

Oh, and lest I forget: Perhaps most illustriously, Arora is a man whom Fortune once christened India’s “Elvis of business.”

Although Arora has little to no experience in cybersecurity, he has loads when it comes to building up corporate behemoths. As Google’s ex-Euro-boss and later chief business officer, he helped transform the ad-seller into the profit-minting powerhouse it is today. He helped instill discipline into the quirky Internet upstart, focusing its untamed energy into unstoppable commercial force. And during his brief stint at Softbank, which has since risen to become arguably the biggest player in tech investing, he made his mark indelibly known.

Arora’s track record provides some insight into what we can expect from his tenure at Palo Alto Networks. In the past year, the computer firewall-maker’s stock price has gushed 90%, but its losses have grown as well. I wager that Arora will aim to shore up the firm’s finances, but not before furthering a recent shopping spree, which has included acquiring Evident.io, a cloud security startup, and Secdo, a security task automator, over the past few months. In partnership with Mark McLaughlin, Palo Alto Networks’ departing CEO and enduring vice chairman, Arora is poised to continue shaping the company into a platform player, on top of which developers can create and deploy their own security software and tools. The aim: keep Palo Alto Networks ahead as the go-to standard for businesses seeking to stay secure as they transition to cloud infrastructures, like Amazon Web Services.

Already the impending succession has shown results. Palo Alto Networks’ share price—$209.19 at market close on June 1st—rose more than 3% in after-hours trading. Investors are, it would appear, all shook up over the news.