Microsoft board close to naming India-born Nadella as new CEO

Tuesday, 4 February 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Microsoft Corp(MSFT.O) is likely to appoint its cloud-computing head, Satya Nadella, as its next chief executive, a source familiar with the matter said, as the board concludes a five-month search for a tech-savvy heavy-hitter to lead the world’s largest software company. As part of the move, co-founder Bill Gates may step aside as chairman and be replaced by lead independent director John Thompson, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity because the process is private. Gates would remain a director, the source added.

Rising star Nadella, a native of Hyderabad - where Microsoft has its largest non-U.S. research center - was promoted to run the company’s fast-expanding cloud, or internet-based, computing initiatives in July last year as part of current CEO Steve Ballmer’s radical re-organization of the company. The appointment of the 22-year Microsoft veteran would make him the most powerful Indian-born tech executive in the world and put him alongside PepsiCo Inc’s chief, Indra Nooyi, as the leader of a well-known, large-cap U.S. corporation. Born in 1967 and educated in India and the United States, Nadella’s tech career started at internet software pioneer Sun Microsystems. He joined Microsoft in 1992 and quickly climbed the corporate ladder with leading roles in the Office and Bing search-engine teams. He was promoted to run the company’s server and tools unit in 2011. That unit now forms the backbone of Microsoft’s cloud-computing platform, which Nadella runs under his official title of executive vice president, cloud and enterprise. Some investors had campaigned for an external CEO who might be more likely to shake up the company and reward shareholders with greater dividends and share buybacks, but Parakh said that did not mean Nadella would be unpopular with Wall Street.