Microsoft has finally concluded their search for the successor of chairman Steve Ballmer. The choice has fallen on Satya Nadella, a long-time employee of the US software giant. Having worked there since 1992, Nadella was responsible for the Cloud & Enterprise branch for the most recent years.
Nadella’s appointment does not come unexpected, but is seen as a somewhat safe choice for following up on the more flamboyant Ballmer who was criticized for the poor results the past few years and, more notably, his failure to catch on with the mobile market. He announced to step back in August of 2013.
Since his announcement, many suggestions were made as to who would fill his shoes. Among these were candidates as Alan Mulally, CEO at the Ford Motor Company, and Stephen Elop of NOKIA, recently acquired by Microsoft. The eventual choice for Nadella originates in his successful career within the company, with leading positions at the Bing search engine and the advertisement branch. He was also responsible for launching the Azure cloud services.
Satya Nadella is only Microsoft’s third Chief Executive Officer in 39 years, following founder Bill Gates (currently President of the Board) and Steve Ballmer.
Although a € 100k+ position, Lintberg.com was not involved in the recruitment process for the Chief Executive Officer position at Microsoft.