Notable People
CEO | Microsoft
Satya
Nadella Satya Nadella: Our Man At Microsoft
I
n less than half a second, Google pulled up 544 million results for Satya Nadella, 46, the day after he was appointed the new Microsoft CEO Feb. 4. The Hyderabad-born Nadella becomes only the third CEO of the technology multinational, and is being feted in India as well as in the U.S. Veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneurs say he stands on the shoulders of those who built a foundation for IndianAmericans to succeed and the community should not be surprised any more when one of its own is elevated to the top. Close family friends describe Nadella as a “listener” but also a doer, whose partnership with his high school sweetheart Anupama Priyadarshini Nadella, is strong, stable, warm and loving
Boy from Begumpet The boy who studied in Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet, where teachers described him”as a soft-spoken and intelligent student, keen to listen and go deep into the subjects,” is now the Microsoft CEO who seemingly impressed the board with his loyalty, his knowledge of a complex company, and his vision of next generation technology. In his first webcast after taking over as CEO Feb. 4, Nadella’s mantra for Microsoft was the vision
of a “Mobile First Cloud First” company. The board saw a man who joined Microsoft in 1992, had the staying power, the insider knowledge and the multidisciplinary background to pull it off. Nadella got his bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) when it was under Mangalore University.
His parents are B. N. Yugandhar and Prabhavati Nadella. His father was a member of India’s Planning Commission under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from 2004-2009, and also served as secretary to the prime minister, secretary of rural development, and director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration.
He says he “always wanted to build things,” and wanted to go into computer science. That brought him to the U.S. to do his masters in computer science from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Anupama Nadella is the daughter of retired IAS officer K.R. Venugopal, best known for developing former Andhra Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao’s “Rupees 2 per kilogram” rice scheme. The Nadellas visit ndia every year without fail, according to family friend Vijay Vashee.
He also picked up an MBA from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
Where he Came From From his various interviews and pronouncements, it is apparent Nadella sees himself first and foremost as a family man. He and his wife Anupama Priyadarshini Nadella whom he knew since high school, come from well-known families that rose to prominence in the Indian Administrative Service. Born Bukkapuram Nadella Satyanarayana, his family hails from Bukkapuram village in Rayalaseema district, Andhra Pradesh.
“It’s very important for him to have his children meet the grandparents and in-laws,” said Vashee who was employee number 160 at Microsoft in 1982, retired in 2001, and is credited with developing PowerPoint into a $900 million enterprise.
Family Man Nadella’s three children, two girls Tara and Divya, and a boy Zain, are his main occupation after work. One of the girls and the boy are special needs children, about whom Vashee refuses to talk except to say, “Whenever I go March 2014
25