It looks like Microsoft has its next CEO. Bloomberg is reporting that the company’s board is preparing to make the company’s enterprise and cloud chief Satya Nadella the man for the job.
The report cites “people briefed on the process”.
The board is also reportedly discussing replacing Bill Gates as chairman.
Obviously the company is not commenting yet. Among the other candidates said to be in the running, Nadella has been considered one of the top choices. Here’s his full bio via Microsoft’s corporate site:
Satya Nadella is executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group, responsible for building and running the company’s computing platforms, developer tools and cloud services.
Nadella and his team deliver the “Cloud OS”, Microsoft’s next generation backend platform. Designed for modern application needs, the Cloud OS is a rich, consistent platform that spans public, private and service provider clouds. The Cloud OS platform also not only powers all of Microsoft’s Internet scale cloud services (including O365, Bing, SkyDrive, Xbox Live, Skype and Dynamics) but also fuels global enterprises around the world to meet their most challenging and mission-critical computing needs. Today, businesses everywhere depend on the products that make up the Cloud OS, including Windows Azure, Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio and System Center.
Previously, Nadella was president of Microsoft’s $19 billion Server and Tools Business and led the transformation of the business and technology from client-server software to cloud infrastructure and services. Prior roles include senior vice president of R&D for the Online Services Division and vice president of the Microsoft Business Division.
Before joining Microsoft in 1992, Nadella was a member of the technology staff at Sun Microsystems. A native of Hyderabad, India, Nadella earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.
It’s pretty easy to see why he would be an ideal candidate for the position.
CEO Steve Ballmer announced his resignation last summer. The company gave an update on the search for his replacement last month, saying that they were looking both inside and outside of the company. Few will be incredibly surprised with the company’s choice.