Satya Narayana Nadella (born August 19, 1967) is an India-born American business executive. He is the current chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft.[7][8] He was appointed as CEO on 4 February 2014, succeeding Steve Ballmer. 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.
Nadella said he "always wanted to build things".[25] He knew that computer science was what he wanted to pursue,[26] 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.[27]
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.[28]
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 fromclient services to cloud infrastructure and services. He has been credited for helping bring Microsoft's database, Windows Server and developer tools to its Azurecloud.[23] The revenue from Cloud Services grew to $20.3 billion in June 2013 from $16.6 billion when he took over in 2011.[29]
Nadella's 2013 base salary was nearly $700,000, for a total compensation, with stock bonuses, of $7.6 million.[30]
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,[37] 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."[38]
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."[39]
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."[40]
In 1992, Nadella married Anupama, daughter of his father's Indian Administrative Service (IAS) batchmate, K.R. Venugopal.[41] 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.[4][42]
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.[4][27]
