The Indian American changed the company’s corporate culture, increased growth through partnerships and innovation, and refocused the software company’s attention to cloud, gaming, and artificial intelligence since 2014.
After ten years as the CEO and executive chairman of Microsoft, Satya Nadella has shifted the company’s focus to tech megatrends like cloud, gaming, and artificial intelligence. Microsoft recently became the second company, after Apple, to reach a $3 trillion stock market valuation under his leadership. In addition, he changed the company’s corporate culture and used partnerships and innovation to spur growth. According to Quartz, the stock of the company has “soared by more than 1,000%, compared to the more gradual 185% growth of the broader S&P 500” since Nadella took over in 2014.
Nadella has “sidestepped most of the controversies that have dogged his Big Tech peers while leaning hard into cloud, gaming, and AI,” according to Axios. The news website claims that “dealmaking, including a key investment in OpenAI and multi-billion dollar acquisitions of Minecraft creator Mojang, LinkedIn, GitHub, Zenimax, and Activision Blizzard, has been a hallmark of his tenure.”
The business was “buried in mediocrity” when Nadella took over as CEO in February, a CNBC report stated. Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer in that role. The news channel stated that he is “widely praised across the tech industry for changing the narrative at Microsoft, whose stock fell 30% during Ballmer’s 14 years at the top.” The company was “squelched by Google in web search and mobile and completely left behind in social media.” Microsoft founder Bill Gates had stated that Nadella’s “vision for how technology will be used and experienced around the world” was necessary as the company “enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth” at the time of Nadella’s appointment as CEO.
To be considered among the greatest of all time (GOAT) among tech CEOs, Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and CEO of AI startup Perplexity, told CMBC that Nadella “is special.”
Nadella, who was born in Hyderabad, held executive positions in Microsoft’s enterprise and consumer divisions prior to taking over as CEO. When he joined the company in 1992, he made a name for himself as a leader who could transform some of Microsoft’s largest product offerings by spanning a wide range of businesses and technologies. He most recently served as the executive vice president of the Cloud and Enterprise division of Microsoft. He oversaw the business’s transition to cloud infrastructure and services in this capacity, which outperformed the industry and gained market share. He was vice president of the Microsoft Business Division and previously oversaw R&D for the Online Services Division. Nadella worked in Sun Microsystems’ technology department prior to joining Microsoft.
Nadella is frequently regarded as being kind, sincere, and sympathetic. He has frequently stated that his oldest child, Zain, who passed away in 2020, is the reason he is so empathic. The 26-year-old had cerebral palsy from birth. Zain’s “struggle against tremendous adversity due to his medical condition, has shaped the Nadella family’s story to one of resilience, empathy, and determination,” according to a May 2021 blog on the Seattle Children’s Hospital website. The family has frequently discussed the eclectic musical taste, sunny smile, and love that their eldest child has for his family. Zain Nadella Endow Chair in Paediatric Neurosciences, part of Seattle Children’s Centre for Integrative Brain Research, was established by the Nadellas and the hospital because Zain received a lot of his medical care there.
As the company’s CEO, he has directed the company’s efforts towards creating products that will better assist users with disabilities. News reports stated that he has shared the lessons he learned from growing and supporting Zain. His experience as Zain’s father had a profound impact on him, as he has discussed in numerous talks, posts, and his book “Hit Refresh” from 2015. Even though Zain had a passion for music, he was unable to regulate it, which caused him and his family to become frustrated. “My son is so happy and free because of the empathy of three teenagers,” the father wrote. “What freedom and happiness the empathy of three teenagers has brought to my son,” he wrote.
Nadella wrote about how all of the medical equipment was running Windows and connected to the cloud when he visited Zain in the intensive care unit following his appointment as Microsoft CEO in 2014. It served as a sobering reminder that the work we do at Microsoft goes beyond business and that it allowed a fragile little boy to live. It also added a new level of seriousness to the impending decisions we had to make at work regarding our cloud and Windows 10 upgrades. I remember thinking, ‘We would better get this right.
In Bellevue, Washington, he resides with his family and his spouse, Anu. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University, a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago, and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. In addition to serving on the board of directors of Starbucks, he is a trustee of the University of Chicago, his alma mater. They have two daughters, Tara and Divya, in addition to Zain.
