Satya Nadella has been credited for turning Microsoft around. While the years with his predecessor, Steve Ballmer hasn't really been that bad, it showed a lack of direction and unity which caused some investors to worry.
According to Seeking Alpha, the company remained profitable during the Ballmer years (2000-2013) but the products didn't satisfy or surprise customers and stock stagnated.
In 2013, Ballmer announced he was stepping down so the search for the new CEO began with both Ballmer and founder Bill Gates in the selection committee. Nadella was named as chief executive February 2014.
Now nearly 3 years after his appointment, Business Insider reported that Microsoft 'found it's groove again'. So who is Satya Nadella? Here are some bits and pieces about the man who helped the tech giant get it's groove back:
Nadella was born in Hyderabad, India in 1967.
Growing up he wanted to be a professional cricket player but he had a deeper passion for science and technology.
After receiving his electrical engineering degree from the Manipal Institute of Technology in 1988, he took up computer science in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the US and graduated in 1990.
Nadella worked for the famed Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley.
In 1992, Nadella became part of Microsoft. At the time, Bill Gates was still CEO.
His earlier projects at Microsoft included the ill-fated interactive TV product and the Windows NT operating system.
In 1997, Nadella earned his MBA from University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. He commuted every weekend from Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington to the university to attend his classes.
Nadella's first executive role came in 1999 when he was named as vice president of Microsoft bCentral, web-based products for small businesses which included hosting and email.
In 2001, under Ballmer's leadership, Nadella was appointed corporate VP for Microsoft Business Solutions. The group's products included an accounting system and was developing a cloud-based CRM to match Salesforce.
He was later on named as senior VP of Microsoft Online Services who handled products like the Bing search engine, Microsoft Office Online and Xbox Live.
In 2011, he headed the Server and Tools Division which was responsible for data centers, like Windows Server and the SQL Server database. When he took over the division it had 16.6 billion in revenue. Two years later, it was up to $20.3 billion.
