Microsoft Names Head of Cloud and Enterprise Group Satya Nadella as CEO

“Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation.” – Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella

In what was an expected move, Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced that Satya Nadella, 46, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors effective immediately.

Nadella previously held the position of Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group.

Nadella, who joined Microsoft in 1992, has managed significant strategy and technical shifts across the company’s portfolio of products and services, most notably managing the development of the massive cloud infrastructures that support Bing, Xbox, Office and other services.

Nadella is the third CEO in Microsoft’s history.

“Satya is a proven leader. He’s got strong technical skills and great business insights,” Microsoft’s previous CEO, Steve Ballmer, wrote in an email to Microsoft employees. “He has a remarkable ability to see what’s going on in the market, to sense opportunity, and to really understand how we come together at Microsoft to execute against those opportunities in a collaborative way. I have worked closely with Satya for many years and I have seen these skills many times.”

“While we have seen great success, we are hungry to do more. Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation,” Nadella wrote in a Feb. 4 email to Microsoft employees.

“The coevolution of software and new hardware form factors will intermediate and digitize — many of the things we do and experience in business, life and our world,” Nadella’s email continued. “This will be made possible by an ever-growing network of connected devices, incredible computing capacity from the cloud, insights from big data, and intelligence from machine learning.”

“This is a software-powered world,” he said.

“During this time of transformation, there is no better person to lead Microsoft than Satya Nadella,” said Bill Gates, Microsoft’s Founder and Member of the Board of Directors. “Satya is a proven leader with hard-core engineering skills, business vision and the ability to bring people together. His vision for how technology will be used and experienced around the world is exactly what Microsoft needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth.”

In addition to naming Nadella as the Company’s new leader, Microsoft also announced that Bill Gates, previously Chairman of the Board of Directors, will take a new role on the Board as Founder and Technology Advisor, and will devote more time to the company in order to help Nadella in shaping technology and product direction. John Thompson, lead independent director for the Board of Directors, will assume the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors and remain an independent director on the Board, the company said.

At 46, Satya has been married for 22 years and has three children.