…ok, so maybe I took liberties with that one—but the moniker “The Indian Steve Jobs” has now become commonplace for Microsoft’s new Andhra origin chief executive officer,

Satya Nadella.

I suppose it’s almost fitting that the first Indian CEO of a multinational software giant is a Telugu (given all our techies), but all Indians raise a toast to Satya Nadella this week.

Joining the upper ranks of the global businessworld marked by such names as Indra Nooyi and Ajay Banga (Pepsico & Mastercard respectively), Satya garu has a long and successful career in this sector—and promises to make a successful impact at the American blue chip company.

Born in Hyderabad, Satya Nadella’s family is native to Krishna district in mana Andhra Pradesh. He completed his education at Hyderabad Public School and Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka. He later earned a Masters in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He eventually earned an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Nadella’s career started at Sun Microsystems, but he is now a 22 year veteran of Microsoft. He was the engineering lead behind the search engine Bing (which has received plaudits for its technical advancements). But he is best known for leading the Cloud division of Microsoft—Azure—which was one of its best performing. This is believed to have landed him the job.

Here’s what none other than Bill Gates himself had to say about Satya:

“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.”

Given Microsoft’s general position, Satya garu will have his work cut out for him. It will be interesting to see what direction he takes it.

We at ACP wish him—as one of our own—the best of luck in a successful tenure as the chief executive officer of Microsoft.

References

1. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/feb14/02-04newspr.aspx
2. http://www.apherald.com/Politics/ViewArticle/46718/Krishna-Dist-boy-to-head-Microsoft-/
3. http://gadgets.ndtv.com/others/features/meet-satya-nadella-the-new-microsoft-ceo-479282
4. http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/satya-nadella-biography-key-facts-career-background-microsoft-103106.html