Microsoft has announced that Satya Nadella is the giant’s next CEO. Steve Ballmer’s replacement will take over immediately, with Ballmer heading straight to an early retirement.
The 46-year-old emerged recently as a likely candidate for the top role, and the timing of the appointment places Nadella at the forefront of Microsoft’s massive Nokia deal and the company restructuring plan.
In his first correspondence to the company, Nadella said that "Today is a very humbling day for me," and went on to discuss how he will innovate Microsoft and help it thrive in a "mobile and cloud-first world."
Nadella also moves on to mention that the industry "does not respect tradition" and says that "while we have seen great success, we are hungry to do more."
Satya Nadella joined Microsoft over 20 years ago, after graduating with a degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconisn-Mailwaukee.
He was made the president of Server and Tools Business and led a transformation of the company’s business and technology culture from client services to cloud infrastructure and services. He has been credited for bringing Microsoft’s database, Windows server and developer tools to its Azure cloud. The revenue from Cloud Services grew to $20.3 billion in June 2013 from $16.6 billion when he took over in 2011.
News also comes of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates stepping down as chairman today. He will take his new title as ‘founder and technology advisor’.
"I’m thrilled that Satya has asked me to step up, substantially increasing my time at the company," said Gates in a video that was posted congratulating Nadella’s new position.
"I’ll have over a third of my time available to meet with product groups and it’ll be fun to define this next round of products working together."
