Satya Nadella

Satya Nadella (b. 1967) is an Indian-American business executive who has served as chief executive officer of Microsoft since 2014 and as chairman of its board since 2021.^[1] Trained as an engineer and computer scientist, he is widely credited with reorienting the company toward cloud computing and a culture of continuous learning.

Early life and education

Satya Nadella was born on 19 August 1967 in Hyderabad, India.^[1] He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology before moving to the United States, where he completed a master's degree in computer science at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He later obtained a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.^[2]

Career at Microsoft

Nadella joined Microsoft in 1992 and spent more than two decades advancing through the company's engineering and business divisions.^[2] He held leadership roles across its server, online services, and business software groups, and headed the Cloud and Enterprise division, where he oversaw the expansion of the Azure cloud platform.^[1]

Leadership as chief executive

In February 2014 Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer to become Microsoft's third chief executive, following co-founder Bill Gates and Ballmer.^[1] As CEO he promoted a "growth mindset" and repositioned the company around cloud services, subscriptions, and software that runs across competing platforms. Under his leadership Microsoft completed several major acquisitions, including LinkedIn in 2016, GitHub in 2018, and Activision Blizzard in 2023, and formed a wide-ranging partnership with the artificial-intelligence research organization OpenAI.^[3] The company's market value rose substantially during his tenure, and in 2021 he additionally took on the role of chairman of the board.^[1]

Recognition

Nadella has received numerous honors, including India's Padma Bhushan in 2022 and recognition as the Financial Times Person of the Year in 2019.^[1] He has also appeared on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people and received the Axel Springer Award. In 2017 he published Hit Refresh, a book reflecting on Microsoft's transformation and his own philosophy of leadership.^[4]