SATYA NADELLA

Satya Nadella is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft. Before being named CEO in February 2014, Nadella held leadership roles in both enterprise and consumer businesses across the company.

Joining Microsoft in 1992, he quickly became known as a leader who could span a breadth of technologies and businesses to transform some of Microsoft’s biggest product offerings.

Most recently, Nadella was executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group. In this role he led the transformation to the cloud infrastructure and services business, which outperformed the market and took share from competition. Previously, Nadella led R&D for the Online Services Division and was vice president of the Microsoft Business Division. Before joining Microsoft, Nadella was a member of the technology staff at Sun Microsystems.

1. He was born in Hyderabad, India. And moved to the United States after graduating from Manipal University. That an immigrant will run this most American of companies is an inspiring story in itself.

2. He’s a long-time Microsoft insider. Nadella joined the company in 1992 from one-time Silicon Valley icon Sun Microsystems; he’s been a Microsoftie for well over half of the company’s existence.

3. He’s an engineer. Unlike Steve Ballmer, who was an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble before joining Microsoft in 1980, Nadella started out as a technologist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Manipal University and a masters in computer science from the University of Wisconsin.

4. But also a business type. In addition to his technology-oriented degrees, he has a masters in business administration from the University of Chicago.

5. He’s been promoted again and again. Among his other high-level positions before he was appointed executive vice president for the cloud and enterprise group last year: president of the server and tools business; senior VP of R&D for the online services division; VP of the business division; senior VP of search, portal and advertising platform group; VP of development for the business solutions group; and general manager of consumer and commerce.

6. He’s currently responsible for a huge, largely invisible part of Microsoft’s business. Among the products Nadella heads up: Windows Azure, Windows Server, SQL Server, System Center and the software-development tools which are Microsoft’s original business, dating all the way back to 1975. Consumers have no reason to pay attention to these areas, but they’re thriving — a big reason why Microsoft just posted robust quarterly results despite the PC industry’s struggles and Windows Phone’s failure, so far, to make much of a dent in Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.

7. He’s played a major role in Microsoft’s transition to the cloud.The company’s very name references the era of software micro for for microcomputers. But Nadella is leading its efforts to be just as good at web-based services as it ever was at PC software — a battle at least as important to the company’s future as anything involving phones or tablets.

8. He does have some consumer background. Though Nadella’s career has skewed towards the business-y side of Microsoft, he’s also worked on some offerings used by folks in their personal lives, such as the Bing search engine.

9. It’s not your imagination — he does have a low profile. Nadella is not exactly a hermit — Quartz’s Leo Mirani interviewed him about Microsoft’s future last December, when Nadella was already known to be a leading CEO candidate — but his focus on unglamorous-but-important products for business use means he shows up at public events less often than colleagues such as Joe Belfiore of the Windows Phone team. (Presumably that will now change.) He also seems to have lost interest in Twitter.

10. We don’t know anything about his master plan. The fact that he’s a Microsoft long-timer might indicate he’s less likely to immediately attempt to impose massive change on the company than an outsider would have been. Or maybe not. And his background in business tools may or may not say anything about the company’s interest moving forward in consumer offerings such as its Xbox gaming and entertainment platform. Stay tuned for more thoughts once Nadella starts to outline his vision for public consumption — and don’t be too surprised if that doesn’t happen immediately.

Satya Nadella’s appointment as the CEO of Microsoft on February 4, 2014, is a proud moment for Indians all over the world and is a testament to hard work. Satya Nadella was born in Hyderabad, India, and did his schooling there. Later, he went to the Manipal Institute of Technology and attained a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunications, a competitive field of engineering. 

 

From a young age, Satya Nadella showed great interest in building things and enhancing the lives of people through technological developments; hence, he decided to pursue his Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MBA from the prestigious University of Chicago Booth School of Business. 

 

Satya Nadella’s educational background, coupled with the leadership skills that he honed during his MBA studies, helped him to lead large groups in Sun Microsystems and Microsoft and enhance the capabilities of these organizations. 

 

Satya Nadella has been working in Microsoft for the last 22 years and during his tenure, Microsoft rose to great heights. In fact, Satya Nadella was the driving force behind Microsoft’s move to cloud computing and he was involved in the development of one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world.

 

Hard work and determination never go unnoticed and this is evident in Satya Nadella’s career graph. In the last few years, Satya Nadella has held a number of positions, including that of the Senior Vice-President of the Research and Development group for the Online Services Division, Vice-President of the Microsoft Business Division, and the President of the Server and Tools Division. 

 

Satya Nadella’s quick promotions can be attributed to his dedication to Microsoft and his determination to enhance the revenue of Microsoft. In fact, after he took over as the President of the Server and Tools Division, the revenue from Cloud Services grew from Rs 1 trillion (US$ 16.6 billion) in 2011 to Rs 1.24 trillion (US$ 20.3 billion) in June 2013. 

 

Satya Nadella is a role model to millions around the world because he has excelled in all areas of life, including education and career. Today, he is happily married with three children and leads a comfortable life in Bellevue, Washington, USA. 

 

Satya Nadella managed to grow in his career because of his sheer dedication and hard work. Youngsters today are hungry for money but are not willing to put in the hard work to earn that money. 

 

We ought to remember that success is the result of years of hard work. So, if we want to reap the sweet fruits of success, we should not shy away from hard work. Instead of switching jobs every year, we ought to stick to the same company and show our loyalty to one organization; only then will there be a win-win situation for both the employee and the organization.

 

Satya Nadella’s life story is an inspiration to all of us and it is hoped that India produces individuals like Satya Nadella, who are not only assets to an organization but are assets to the entire world.