Zoom's Top Lawyer-Turned-COO Receives $28 Million Pay Package

Zoom Video Communications Inc.'s Aparna Bawa, its chief operating officer and interim legal head, received a pay package valued at $28 million in its most recent fiscal year as top executives prepared to reduce their salaries.

The bulk of Bawa’s total compensation for fiscal 2023 comprises $27.6 million in stock awards, as well as roughly $426,900 in annual base salary, according to a proxy statement by the San Jose, Calif.-based company.

Bawa’s stock awards, which will vest over several years, come as she and other Zoom executives prepare to tighten their belts. Executive officers at the company will see their $450,000 base salaries reduced 20% in fiscal 2024 as part of a restructuring plan, Zoom’s proxy states.

Zoom announced plans this year to eliminate 15% of its global workforce—cutting about 1,300 jobs—as the company adapted to slower post-pandemic growth. Eric Yuan, Zoom’s chief executive, said he would slash his salary by 98% and forgo his bonus to make himself “accountable” for the reduction in force.

The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Bawa’s compensation, which dwarfed the nearly $420,000 in cash she earned during fiscal 2022.

Zoom disclosed that Bawa received more than $10.6 million in compensation for fiscal 2021, most of it in the form of company stock awards.

Bawa has sold off at least $37 million in Zoom stock since the beginning of 2021, securities filings show. She currently owns almost $2 million in Zoom shares, according to Bloomberg data. Bawa also owns more than $960,000 in shares of Palo Alto Networks Inc., whose board she joined in 2021.

Zoom hired Jeffrey True, a former general counsel at Palo Alto Networks, for that same job title in September 2020.

Bawa joined Zoom as its first general counsel in 2018, having previously been legal chief at e-commerce platform Magento Inc. and general counsel for flash storage company Nimble Storage Inc. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. bought Nimble Storage in 2017 and Adobe Inc. acquired Magento the following year.

She began her career at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in 2002 before going on to work as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers.

Bawa took on the additional role of COO in mid-2020 as the coronavirus pandemic led Zoom’s teleconferencing technology to soar in popularity.