10 Things (We Think) You Need To Know About Satya Nadella

1. He was born and raised in Hyderabad, India, before moving to the United States to peruse his MS in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He also secured an MBA from the University of Chicago. 2. This means he has a technical background and a management one, unlike Steve Ballmer who was purely managerial. In other words, Satya Nadella knows his stuff, and his engineering connection should come in handy when making ground decisions. 3. Joined Microsoft in 1992 as a program manager in the Windows developer-relations group, and has been with the company for more than half its existence. Prior to this, he had the briefest of stints at Sun Microsystems. 4. It was only in 2007 when he started rising through the ranks at Redmond. 5. Aged 46, he was the force behind Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise division that brought in over $20.3 billion in revenue last fiscal year. 6. Although not exactly a hermit, Nadella has kept a lower profile compared to other Redmond executives. That will, in all probability, change from now on. Or at least we hope it does. 7. Has a cool and calm demeanor, and has been said to have kept his head during heated and frantic discussions with Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates. Always comes in handy. 8. Speaking of Gates, he is bringing back the cofounder in a big way. In his first email to employees as CEO, Nadella revealed that he asked Bill Gates to devote more of his time at the company. 9. He is a fan of cricket, the game that is, not the insect. While more than half the world cannot get its head around a sports that lasts for five days to bring a result, Nadella is a dutiful follower. 10. He finds Twitter interesting again. With this tweet and account verification, his first since July 2010, he has pretty much become the most active Microsoft CEO on the social network.]]>