Microsoft Corp on Wednesday elevated Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella as its new chairman. Nadella is replacing John Thompson, who will be serving as a lead independent director.
Nadella took over as tech giant’s CEO in 2014 from Steve Ballmer when Microsoft’s Windows business was declining, and the company was facing backlashes in its failures in the mobile phone and internet search markets.
Since then, Nadella has played a significant role in scaling up its business which includes Microsoft’s billion-dollar acquisitions like LinkedIn, Nuance Communications and ZeniMax. The company’s share price has risen nearly 600% since 2014.
Nadella will also continue to hold the CEO position, which makes it the first time since 2000, when co-founder Bill Gates stepped down as CEO, that the same person is holding both positions.
