Satya Nadella

Satya Narayana Nadella (born August 19, 1967) is an India-born American business executive. He is the current chief executive officer (CEO) and executive chairman of Microsoft. He was appointed as CEO on 4 February 2014, succeeding Steve Ballmer, and as executive chairman in 2021, replacing John W. Thompson. Before becoming CEO of Microsoft, he was Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group, responsible for building and running the company's Computing Platforms, Developer Tools and Cloud Computing Services.

Early life

Nadella was born into a Telugu speaking family in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, India. His father, Bukkapuram Nadella Yugandher, was a civil servant of the Indian Administrative Service. Nadella attended the Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet before attaining a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in 1988 (then affiliated with Mangalore University), Manipal, Karnataka.

Nadella subsequently traveled to the U.S. to study for an M.S. degree in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, receiving his degree in 1990. Later he received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Nadella said he "always wanted to build things". He knew that computer science was what he wanted to pursue, but that passion was at precocious stage while studying at Manipal University. "And so it [electrical engineering] was a great way for me to go discover what turned out to become a passion," he says.

Career

Sun Microsystems

Nadella worked with Sun Microsystems as a member of its technology staff prior to joining Microsoft in 1992.

Microsoft

At Microsoft Nadella has led major projects including the company's move to cloud computing and the development of one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world.

Nadella worked as the senior vice-president of Research and Development (R&D) for the Online Services Division and vice-president of the Microsoft Business Division. Later, he was made the president of Microsoft's $19 billion Server and Tools Business and led a transformation of the company's business and technology culture from client services to cloud infrastructure and services. He has been credited for helping bring Microsoft's database, Windows Server and developer tools to its Azure cloud. The revenue from Cloud Services grew to $20.3 billion in June 2013 from $16.6 billion when he took over in 2011.

Nadella's 2013 base salary was nearly $700,000, for a total compensation, with stock bonuses, of $7.6 million.

Previous positions held by Nadella include:

• President of the Server & Tools Division (9 February 2011 – February 2014)
• Senior Vice-President of Research and Development for the Online Services Division (March 2007 – February 2011)
• Vice-President of the Business Division
• Corporate Vice-President of Business Solutions and Search & Advertising Platform Group
• Executive Vice-President of Cloud and Enterprise group

Nadella with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India.

On 4 February 2014, Nadella was announced as the new CEO of Microsoft, the third chief executive in the company's history.

Controversy

On 9 October 2014, while speaking at the Grace Hopper Celebration, a women's technical conference, when asked what his advice would be for women who are uncomfortable asking for a raise in pay, Nadella stated: "It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along," Nadella said, according to a recording on the website of the event.

"Because that's good karma," Nadella continued. "It'll come back because somebody's going to know that's the kind of person that I want to trust."

After the comments produced a strong backlash in the media and in social media, Nadella issued an apology, "Was inarticulate on how women should ask for raise," he tweeted several hours after his remarks. "Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias."

Microsoft also issued a memo on its website in which Nadella wrote: "I answered that question completely wrong," said the memo. "I believe men and women should get equal pay for equal work. And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it’s deserved, Maria’s advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask."

Personal life

In 1992, Nadella married Anupama, daughter of his father's Indian Administrative Service (IAS) batchmate, K.R. Venugopal. The families had known each other for thirty years and the marriage was arranged in the usual Indian way by their parents. The couple have three children, a son and two daughters, and live in Bellevue, Washington.

Nadella is an avid reader of American and Indian poetry. He also has an interest in cricket (his passion growing up), having played in his school team. He has mentioned having learned something about leadership and teamwork from cricket.

External links

• Satya Nadella on Twitter
• Profile at Microsoft's Website
• Satya Nadella's theCUBE Interview from Accel Stanford Symposium 2013

Preceded by Steve Ballmer

CEO of Microsoft 2014–present

Succeeded by incumbent