Satya Nadella is Probably the Next Microsoft CEO

Big changes are afoot at Microsoft, and Bloomberg reports that the next Microsoft CEO is (probably going to be) none other than Satya Nadella – the company’s enterprise and cloud chief (his official title being “executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group”). Well, the plans are not final, but it looks like Satya Nadella has got this in his pocket.

Erstwhile CEO Steve Ballmer has had his day, and together with teary-eyed and emotional farewells, he really is going to leave the company as its head. While there are some other contenders for the role, it seems that Satya Nadella has the strongest position.

Satya Nadella is a 44-year-old engineer with degrees in electronics, computer science (from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee), and business administration (from the University of Chicago). Born in India, Nadella has been with Microsoft since 1992 and has a list of impressive achievements within the company, among them:

• launching BizTalk
• Microsoft’s Commerce Server
• Microsoft’s Office Small Business products
• Microsoft’s online initiatives, where he transformed Windows Live Search into Bing

Those achievements are certainly nothing to look down on, although a major concern about Nadella is that he has had no experience in taking on such a senior and critical role.

In other news, it’s not just the CEO position that is up for grabs at Microsoft. Bill Gates has been out of the day-to-day operations for a while now, but he remains the chairman of the company. With these changes happening, it seems that Gates might also be out of the picture very soon. Sources say that Microsoft is considering replacing Bill Gates as chairman, and the name of John Thompson (Microsoft’s lead independent director) is being brought up as a replacement.

Are these uncertain or exciting times for the tech giant (that has not exactly been flourishing without struggles)? What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!

[Image via winrumors]