Microsoft

It’s official: Natya Sadella is Microsoft’s new CEO, Bill Gates steps down as Chairman

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Last week’s reports from Re/code and Bloomberg have turned out to be true: Microsoft’s board of directors have named former Executive Vice President of Enterprise and Cloud Natya Sadella as Microsoft’s new CEO. He replaces Steve Ballmer, who announced his retirement in August of 2013. Also out of his former position is Bill Gates, who is stepping down from Chairman of the board to a “technology adviser” role, where he will lead the company to face its toughest problems. Replacing him is John Thompson, who led the search for the company’s next CEO.

Sadella was in the running for the position since the very beginning, competing against former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and even Ford Motor Company’s Alan Mulally. The latter pulled himself out of the running early this year, deciding instead to focus on the manufacturer’s One Ford strategy. Out of all the potential and rumored candidates, Nadella is most qualified: under his leadership, Microsoft’s Enterprise and Cloud divisions saw tremendous growth and success.

Gates had nothing but kind words to say about Microsoft’s new leader:

“During this time of transformation, there is no better person to lead Microsoft than Satya Nadella. 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.”

Like I said last week, Nadella was the only true contender in this search. He’s an incredibly brilliant businessman who is also savvy with the products that are most profitable for Microsoft, so he will likely be able to lead the company into even greater success in the coming months and years. Hopefully he will be able to execute better ideas for Microsoft’s mobile markets, as well, since that is arguably Microsoft’s biggest hurdle right now.

What do you think about the decision to name Satya Nadella as the new CEO of Microsoft? And what are your thoughts on Bill Gates’ new position as Microsoft’s technology adviser?

[Microsoft: 1, 2 | Wall Street Journal]

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Calob Horton

Calob Horton is an associate editor at Pocketables. He loves all technology, no matter which company it comes from. This unbiased view of the tech world allows him to choose the products that best fit his personal needs and tastes: a Microsoft Surface Pro, a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and a third-gen iPad.Google+ | Twitter | More posts by Calob | Subscribe to Calob's posts

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