From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Wednesday, February 9, 2011
To: Microsoft – All Employees
Subject: New Leadership for Server and Tools Business
Today our Server and Tools Business is in a position of strength due to our leadership in the cloud, significant product advances such as Windows Azure, and the proven ability to excel and grow in the face some of the toughest competition we’ve ever seen.
In deciding who should take the business forward, we wanted someone with the right mix of leadership, vision and hard-core engineering chops. We wanted someone who could define the future of business computing and further expand our ability to bring the cloud to business customers and developers in game-changing ways.
With that in mind, I am extremely pleased to announce that I am promoting Satya Nadella to president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business, effective immediately.
As we said initially, we looked both externally and internally, and I talked to a number of very strong candidates. Satya was the clear choice given we were looking for a person with a deep understanding of and vision for the rapidly merging worlds of servers and services, as well as experience in managing cloud infrastructure and services at scale.
Satya has the ideal skill set for this opportunity, having worked in the Server Group in his earlier years at Microsoft and most recently serving as senior vice president of the Online Services Division where he has effectively been CIO of one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world, spanning our Search, Portal, and Advertising platforms.
In his role in the Online Services Division, he led the overall R&D efforts for some of the largest online services and drove the technical vision and strategy for several important milestones, including the critical launch of Bing, new releases of MSN, Yahoo! integration across Bing and adCenter, and much more.
Satya is also well-known for his leadership. He has strong collaboration skills, is decisive in both decision-making and delegating, and has strong customer insights, engineering and business expertise. He also knows how to structure organizations for outstanding performance.
Equally as important, he has demonstrated the ability to cultivate talent and build a world-class engineering organization, attracting some of the brightest technical minds from within Microsoft and across the industry.
Please join me in congratulating Satya, and welcoming him to his new role.
As I announced previously, Bob Muglia will work through the summer and help onboard Satya. I want to thank Bob again for his extraordinary contributions to Microsoft and his insights and assistance in the months ahead.
In addition, Amitabh Srivastava, senior vice president in the Server and Tools Business, will leave the company. As I noted above, Windows Azure is in a great place, and Amitabh is ready to move to a new phase in his career. He has done stellar work for the company and will work to ensure a smooth transition with the Windows Azure team. I wish him well in his new endeavors.
Steve
