The change reflects the success Nadella has had in the past
seven years making Microsoft more prominent in technology and business
altogether.
"In this role, Nadella will lead the work to set the
agenda for the board, leveraging his deep understanding of the business to
elevate the right strategic opportunities and identify key risks and mitigation
approaches for the board's review," Microsoft said in a statement.
Under Nadella's watch Microsoft regained the title of
world's most valuable public company. Today it stands as the second most
valuable, only behind Apple, with Microsoft stock having risen more than 600%.
Nadella's Microsoft has become more focused on cloud
computing services to power other company's applications, and the company has
expanded through acquisitions of business social network LinkedIn, source
code-sharing site GitHub and video-game developer Zenimax.
Microsoft's board members gave plaudits to Nadella for his
leadership during the coronavirus pandemic in the proxy statement the company
filed in December, with the company delivering 14% revenue growth in the 2020
fiscal year, even as the company faced challenges in advertising and other
markets. "The board credits Mr. Nadella for his tremendous progress
driving cultural change across the organization, especially given the
unprecedented impact of Covid-19 on our business and our people,"
Microsoft said.
Nadella is one of Microsoft's top individual shareholders,
with more than 1.6 million shares of the company's stock.
The move came a year after Bill Gates, a co-founder of
Microsoft and its first CEO, left the company's board. Gates stepped down after
the board investigated a report that Gates had tried to start an intimate
relationship with an employee in 2000, a company spokesperson said.
Thompson, formerly CEO of Symantec, joined Microsoft's board
in 2012 and replaced Gates as Microsoft's chair in 2014, on the same day
Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer as the Microsoft CEO.
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