General Catalyst chief executive Hemant Taneja has announced that Nikesh Arora, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Palo Alto Networks, will join the firm’s board as its first lead independent director. This comes alongside the departure of co-founder David Fialkow after 24 years on the board.
Arora will join Taneja and Kenneth Chenault, General Catalyst’s chairman, on the board. He has been at the helm of cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks since 2018, prior to which he served as Google’s chief business officer and subsequently as president and chief operating officer of SoftBank. He joined Uber’s board of directors in June last year.
Taneja also praised Fialkow, who co-founded General Catalyst in Cambridge in 2000 alongside Joel Cutler. During his tenure, the firm backed companies including Stripe, Snap, Airbnb, Anduril, and Canva. Further, Taneja said Fialkow will remain engaged with the firm and its founders.
