Historical Figure
Satya Nadella
b. 1967
Indian-American business executive (born 1967)
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Biography
Satya Narayana Nadella is an American business executive. He is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as chairman. Before becoming CEO, he was the executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud and enterprise group, responsible for building and running the company's computing platforms.
Timeline
The story of Satya Nadella, told in moments.
Joined Microsoft after stints at Sun Microsystems and completing degrees from Manipal, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Chicago Booth. He started in the Windows group and spent 22 years climbing the ranks before anyone outside the company knew his name.
Named CEO of Microsoft, only the third in the company's history after Gates and Ballmer. His first email to employees said the company needed a "culture change." He meant it. Pivoted Microsoft hard toward cloud computing and away from the "Windows everywhere" obsession.
Also became chairman of Microsoft's board. Under his leadership, the company's market cap grew from $300 billion to over $2 trillion. The Azure cloud platform became Microsoft's growth engine.
In Their Own Words (10)
What I think needs to be done in 2018 is more dialogue around the ethics, the principles that we can use for the engineers and companies that are building AI [artificial intelligence], so that the choices we make do not cause us to create systems with bias.
"Artificial intelligence will not kill human jobs, says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella", Scroll.in (29 May 2018), 2018
Microsoft has a long history of taking a principled approach to how we live up to our mission of empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more with technology platforms and tools, while also standing up for our enduring values and ethics.
"Microsoft CEO plays down ICE contract in internal memo to employees", The Verge (20 June 2018), 2018
AI is going to be one of the trends that is going to be the next big shift in technology. It's going to be AI at the edge, AI in the cloud, AI as part of SaaS applications, AI as part of in fact even infrastructure. And to me, to be the leader in it, it's not enough just to sort of have AI capability that we can exercise—you also need the ability to democratize it so that every business can truly benefit from it. That to me is our identity around AI.
"Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella On The Extraordinary Potential Of AI", Forbes (4 June 2018), 2018
We will continue to be in the phone market not as defined by today's market leaders, but by what it is that we can uniquely do in what is the most ultimate mobile device.
Microsoft's Surface Phone Could Be The Ultimate Mobile Device in Forbes (24 November 2016), 2016
When I think about my career, my successes are built on learning from failures.
Boy Genius Report: "When I think about my career, my successes are built on learning from failures: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella" (29 December 2015), 2015
Artifacts (13)
Oprime refrescar: La aventura de redescubrir el alma de Microsoft y concebir un futuro mejor para todos
Oprime refrescar es un conjunto de reflexiones, meditaciones y recomendaciones presentadas como algoritmos de parte de un líder con principios que busca el progreso para sí mismo, para una empresa con...
Hit Refresh: Microsoft ke Marm ki Talaash Mein Ek Yatra, Sabke Liye Behtar Bhavishya ki Kalpana Karte Hue
HIT REFRESH is about individual change, the transformation happening inside Microsoft, and the arrival of the most exciting and disruptive wave of technology humankind has experienced - including...
Hit Refresh Intl: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone
“At the core, Hit Refresh, is about us humans and the unique quality we call empathy, which will become ever more valuable in a world where the torrent of technology will disrupt the status quo like...
Faça Refresh: A Redescoberta da Alma da Microsoft e a Criação de Um Futuro Melhor
Uma viagem pelos bastidores da transformação contínua da Microsoft. Bestseller do New York Times Uma viagem pelos bastidores da transformação contínua da Microsoft e uma visão privilegiada da vaga de...
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Data Strategy (featuring "Democratizing Transformation" by Marco Iansiti and Satya Nadella)
Data is your business. Have you unlocked its full potential? If you read nothing else on data strategy, read this book. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected...
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