10 Things You Didn’t Know About Satya Nadella

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Satya Nadella should be a familiar name to those who are interested in the business world. After all, he is the current CEO of Microsoft, which has become one of the most powerful corporations in existence through its commanding position when it comes to operating systems. However, it is important to remember that Nadella had a long and successful career in his chosen field of expertise before he managed to reach the top by succeeding Steve Ballmer, meaning that there is much information about him that should interest those with a fondness for success stories.

Here are 10 things that you may or may not known about Satya Nadella:

1. Born a Telugu

It is interesting to note that India is home to an astonishing number of peoples, who possess their own cultures as well as their own languages. The Telugu are one of the better-known examples of these peoples, seeing as how the Telugu language is not just the most spoken Dravidian language but also the third-most spoken language in India and the fourth-most spoken language in the Indian subcontinent. For the most part, the Telugu live in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which should come as no surprise seeing as how Nadella was born in their shared capital, Hyderabad.

2. Met His Spouse Through His Parents

Nadella met his spouse through the efforts of his parents as well as the efforts of her parents. In further detail, both of the couple’s fathers were batch-mates in the Indian Administrative Service, meaning that their families have known each other for about three decades before their marriage. So far, the marriage seems to have been a success, which is supported by their three children, who consist of one son and two daughters.

3. Started Out in Electrical Engineering

From the start, Nadella knew that he wanted to build things, which is why he went into engineering. However, while he had an interest in computer science at the time, it was not strong enough to convince him to start out as a student of that particular field. Instead, he started out as a student of electrical engineering, which nurtured his interest in computer science and culminated in him becoming a student of computer science when the time came for graduate school. Later still, Nadella picked up a MBA, which complemented his role as a manager.

4. Used to Work for Sun Microsystems

Before he started working for Microsoft in 1992, Nadella was a member of the tech team at Sun Microsystems. For people who are unfamiliar with the name, Sun Microsystems was a corporation that specialized in computers, computer components, computer software, and IT services. In particular, it was known for its creation of the Java programming language, which still sees ubiquitous use in computer software, as well as a number of innovations and inventions such as client computing and virtualized computing. Unfortunately, Sun Microsystems has not existed since 2009, which is when it was bought out by Oracle and merged with one of its segments.

5. Rose Through the Ranks

Some executives started out in business management. In contrast, other executives started out in their chosen field of expertise and then climb to the top. Nadella is a case of the latter rather than the former, seeing as how he held a succession of more and more important roles with more and more responsibilities over the course of his career before that climb culminated in his current position.

6. Was Involved with Cloud Computing

Of particular note was Nadella’s involvement with cloud computing. In brief, cloud computing is when someone chooses to use a network of remote servers rather than local servers to handle processes such as managing data, processing data, and storing data, which means that it has a number of important implications for businesses. Nadella was the one responsible for managing Microsoft’s move over to cloud computing, which resulted in the creation of one of the largest cloud infrastructures that can be found in the entire world.

7. Loves Cricket

Like a lot of people from the Indian subcontinent, Nadella is a big fan of cricket. In fact, he used to be a member of the cricket team at his school in India, which speaks volumes about his commitment to the sport. For what it is worth, Nadella credits his time on the team with teaching him leadership as well as team work, which are critical abilities for managers regardless of the nature of their duties and responsibilities.

8. Loves Poetry

On a related note, Nadella is a big fan of poetry as well, so much so that reading poetry is actually listed as one of his hobbies on his profile on Microsoft’s website. This is particularly interesting because Nadella likes reading both English poetry and Indian poetry. Something that shows multilingualism can produce rather respectable rewards for those who are willing to make the commitment.

9. Became Embroiled in a Controversy

In 2014, Nadella became embroiled in a controversy when he stated that women should trust in the system to give them the raise that they deserved when asked for advice about what to do when women were uncomfortable about asking for a raise. Unsurprisingly, this drew some rather heated comments at the time, but to Nadella’s credit, he later veered away from his position and affirmed his commitment to making sure that men and women in the tech sector received the same pay for the same work.

10. Has Bill Gates for a Mentor

For some time, Bill Gates has been disengaging himself from the day-to-day running of the corporation that he had helped to co-found. This can be seen in how he stepped down from the position of CEO and later still, how he stepped down from the position of the Chairman of the Board. Still, it is interesting to note that Bill Gates still has a role in Microsoft in the sense that he continues to serve as a mentor of sorts to Nadella, thus providing the latter with the benefit of his full expertise and experience without letting his presence get in the way too much at the same time.

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