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FORTUNE.COM // DECEMBER 2019
S A T Y A
NADELLA
CEO MICROSOFT
CHALLENGE
ASSEMBLING THE RIGHT TEAM
When Satya Nadella was named the surprise
choice to lead Microsoft in 2014, it was glaringly
obvious the many things he was not. A computer
scientist who had risen through the technical and
general-management ranks at the software giant,
Nadella was neither a founder like Bill Gates nor a
big-personality sales leader like his predecessor, Steve
Ballmer. He’d never worked in finance, another
training ground for CEOs. And his stature on the
global stage was nonexistent. What’s more, having
joined Microsoft in 1992, he was thoroughly steeped
in a dog-eat-dog Microsoft culture that had contrib-
PHOTOGRAPH BY STUART ISETT
