SATYA NADELLA, 53, SUCCEEDS JOHN THOMPSON, WHO WILL RETURN TO THE ROLE OF LEAD INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR, A POSITION HE HELD BEFORE BEING NAMED CHAIRMAN IN 2014
Microsoft Corp. named Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella as board chairman, strengthening his influence at the world’s largest software maker after more than seven years as the top executive.
Microsoft Corp on Wednesday named Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella as its new chairman, in place of John Thompson. The Hyderabad born Nadella has been instrumental in taking Microsoft higher.
Under his leadership, Microsoft underwent a lot of change and recovered from failures in in the mobile phone and internet search market, as well as a waning of the importance of its flagship Windows operating system.
Nadella has refocused the company around cloud computing, mobile applications and artificial intelligence while breathing new life into the Office software franchise by shifting it more to the cloud and to other operating systems.
Mr. Nadella, who took over as CEO in 2014 from Steve Ballmer, has been instrumental in scaling up its business including billion-dollar acquisitions like LinkedIn, Nuance Communications and ZeniMax.
The top-level executive change comes just over a year after Mr. Gates stepped down from the board, saying he would focus on philanthropic works of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world’s biggest charities.
