Microsoft has named the managing director Satya Nadella chairman of the board of directors, thus strengthening his position: he was unanimously elected head of Microsoft’s board of directors and will lead the agenda “by leveraging a deep understanding of the business to recognize the right strategic opportunities and identify key risks”.
Nadella, who took over from Steve Ballmer in February 2014, made Microsoft more relevant in the new tech world led by Apple and Google: when Nadella took over, many feared the company was becoming a “dinosaur”; Nadella is credited with bringing new energy to the company, which was founded in 1975 and has long focused on software for personal computers.
At the start of her mandate, Nadella initiated a massive reorganization, cutting around 18 thousand jobs (14% of the workforce) according to a plan aimed at simplifying the corporate structure and integrating the mobile division of the Finnish Nokia; 53-year-old Nadella has made cloud computing a priority, making it a lucrative growth engine for the tech giant, which is headquartered in the city of Redmond, Washington.
The company’s board also announced a quarterly dividend of 56 cents per share, which will be paid in September.
.