Salesforce, Zoom Law Chiefs Get Nearly $26 Million in Total Pay

Zoom Video Communications Inc. and Salesforce Inc. made their in-house legal leaders among the companies’ top-paid executives last year.

Salesforce gave nearly $14.1 million in total compensation to Sabastian Niles, who the company recruited last summer from the partnership at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Aparna Bawa, Zoom’s chief operating officer and longtime interim legal leader, received a pay package valued at nearly $11.5 million.

The lawyers’ pay was disclosed late Thursday in separate proxy statements filed by their respective employers. Both legal chiefs are among the highest-paid not only in the technology sector—those ahead of them include Alphabet Inc.'s Kent Walker and Apple Inc.'s Kate Adams—but at US publicly traded companies.

Niles joined Salesforce halfway through its 2024 fiscal year, having counseled the cloud-based software company on its 2023 proxy battle with billionaire Paul Singer’s activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management LP. Salesforce had previously tapped Wachtell to advise on its $15.3 billion acquisition of Tableau Software and $27.7 billion buy of Slack Technologies Inc.

Salesforce gave Niles almost $10.2 million in stock awards and a $3 million “new-hire bonus,” according to its proxy. He also earned more than $900,000 in cash from the San Francisco-based company, including a pro-rated base salary that going forward will be that same sum.

Bawa’s remuneration was down from the $28 million she received from Zoom the year prior, a sum that was bolstered by a $27.6 million stock award. Zoom gave $11.1 million in stock to Bawa in 2024according to its most recent proxy.

Bawa’s Zoom pay is on par with the $10.6 million she received in fiscal 2021 during the period following the company’s pandemic-driven business boom.

Zoom recently hired Cheree McAlpine to be its new legal chief. She’s taken on law department leadership duties from Bawa so the latter can focus on her business-side role at the San Jose, Calif.-based video conferencing company.

Salesforce, like Zoom, also has a general counsel in Todd Machtmes, who moved into that role in 2021 after Weaver took over financial duties at the company. Machtmes wasn’t one of Salesforce’s five highest-paid executives in 2024, but Weaver earned almost $12.3 million in total compensation, per its proxy.

Salesforce is expanding from software into generative artificial intelligence. Bloomberg News reported in March that Salesforce spent $20 million to license an image of Albert Einstein to make him the face of its AI strategy.

Zoom is also now using AI tools that have drawn scrutiny from customers and regulators. Zoom parted ways last year with its former general counsel Jeffrey True, who in March was hired by Abnormal Security Corp. to be its legal chief as the cybersecurity startup prepares for a potential public listing.