Satya Nadella - Afrikan Heroes

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Bags $1-billion on Surging Shares

July 20, 2023

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella has crossed the $1 billion threshold as a result of the windfall as the company’s shares surged on the back of AI-driven rally which pushed its stock to new highs. Nadella’s bonus includes all payouts he has collected from Microsoft that can be parsed from regulatory filings: equity grants, salary, bonuses and dividends. It’s underpinned by Microsoft shares returning more than 1 000% since his first day in the top job.

It’s not clear what Nadella has done with these proceeds, and the calculation does not account for expenditures or private investments. Regulatory filings show that he’s gifted shares worth $20-million over the years, though there’s no disclosure of the beneficiaries.

Nadella’s most transformative move may prove to be the company’s multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI

Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw said by e-mail that Nadella “does not have a net worth of a billion dollars or more”. He declined to comment further.

Nadella took the reins at Microsoft in 2014, at a time when many thought the technology giant’s best days were behind it. Today, it’s the second largest company in the world and is considered the frontrunner in the race to capitalise on artificial intelligence.

Nadella’s most transformative move may prove to be the company’s multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI and its ChatGPT bot, which a senior executive called a “Windows 95 moment”, referring to the hugely successful software release nearly three decades ago. That catapulted Microsoft ahead of competitors like Google in AI capabilities, and is the main driver of the stock’s 50% surge this year.

“He is a well-liked person and has built an incredible team around him,” said Sam Garg, an associate professor at ESSEC Business School in Singapore. “He is also among the few tech CEOs who are not reviled by politicians and regulators.”

Nadella is part of an exclusive club of corporate titans who’ve amassed 10-figure hauls from their employers. He’s traced a similar arc to Apple’s Tim Cook, the leader of the only company in the world that’s more valuable than Microsoft. Both took over successful firms at inflection points, and both had to contend with the long shadows of lauded founders. Nine years after ascending to the CEO role, Cook reached billionaire status.

The bulk of Nadella’s haul stems from a series of equity grants he has received over the years, with payouts tided both to his continued service and to performance targets. He’s periodically sold some of the shares.

It also accounts for cash bonuses and dividends he’s received, assuming they’re taxed at the top federal rates.

Like for Cook, the ballooning value of Nadella’s awards largely stems from Microsoft’s stock returns, including reinvested dividends, since early 2014.

It also underscores a decade of change at the Redmond, Washington-based company. When Nadella became CEO, many saw Microsoft as a company of dwindling relevance: a juggernaut known for Windows and Office trying to find its way in a world of handheld devices. Charting the path forward fell to Nadella, a native of Hyderabad, India, with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science.

He started at Microsoft in 1992 and worked on business software and services through much of his career. He earned an MBA by taking weekend classes at the University of Chicago, commuting from Seattle.

He moved through various leadership roles and eventually became president of Microsoft’s server business. From there, he was plucked as CEO after a lengthy process that included several internal and external candidates. He was 46 at the time.

A few years before, Nadella had sat down with then-CEO Steve Ballmer for his annual review. In a 2014 interview with the New York Times, Nadella recalled asking Ballmer how he was performing.

“You don’t have to ask me, ‘How am I doing?’” Ballmer responded. “At your level, it’s going to be fairly implicit.”

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Satya Nadella Elected Microsoft’s First Chair & CEO After Bill Gates

June 21, 2021

Microsoft’s current CEO Satya Nadella has been elected by the company’s board to be the next Chairman after the founder Bill Gates stepped down as Chair. This is the first time in more than 20 years that the roles of CEO and chair have been held by the same person. The last person who simultaneously held both positions was Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, before stepping down as CEO 21 years ago at the turn of the millennium.

Satya Nadella Microsoft’s First Chair & CEO — Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s First Chair & CEO

Gates stepped down as Microsoft’s chair in 2014 and left the company’s board entirely last year in a bid to focus on his philanthropic priorities.

Nadella took over as Microsoft CEO in February 2014 having previously led the company’s cloud computing division. No doubt his past experience helped in the pervasiveness that Microsoft Azure enjoys today.

Business Insider reports that Nadella has actively sought to distance his style of leadership from that of Gates, especially in May this year after the Wall Street Journal reported on a 2019 investigation commissioned by Microsoft’s board into an alleged relationship between Gates and a former Microsoft employee.

Many other employees have since come out with allegations. In particular, the New York Times reported on employees feeling uncomfortable working with and around Gates.

“I feel that we have created an environment that allows us to really drive the everyday improvement in our diversity and inclusion culture, which I think is a super important thing and that’s what I’m focused on,” Nadella says about the influence of his leadership.

In 2014, Nadella made a series of controversial comments at the Grace Hopper Celebration, a prominent conference for women in tech. During an on-stage conversation with Maria Klawe, the president of Harvey Mudd College and a then-Microsoft board member, Nadella told the 8,000 conference attendees that women should rely on “faith” in the system and “good karma” to get pay raises, rather than asking bosses for them.

Nadella apologised soon after and used the incident to launch the previously mentioned series of diversity and inclusion initiatives in Microsoft.

Klawe claims that she was blamed by the board for “putting Nadella in the situation” and that the comment made the company look back. Klawe says that she was asked to resign from the board after the incident and that she “felt like [she] was being silenced.”