Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, will be the keynote speaker Nov. 10 at the Utah Technology Council’s 19th annual Hall of Fame Gala in Salt Lake City.
The council made the announcement recently. Nadella follows other prominent tech leaders as gala speakers, including Tim Cook of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Marc Benioff of Salesforce, Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Mark Hurd of Oracle, and Eric Schmidt of Google.
“The Hall of Fame is the premier event for Utah’s 6,000 tech companies where we celebrate the vitality of our dynamic industry,” said Richard R. Nelson, UTC’s president and chief executive officer. “Hosting Mr. Nadella is a major coup. He’s a brilliant visionary.”
The crucial need for corporate change and reinvention, as told in his own words, can be found in Nadella’s new book Hit Refresh, which is scheduled to be published Sept. 26.
“I am pleased that Satya Nadella has accepted my invitation to keynote the Utah Technology Council’s Hall of Fame event,” said U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “He is a true innovator and is doing amazing things for Microsoft. Following a thrilling visit from Apple’s Tim Cook last year, Satya will continue our tradition of bringing the world’s foremost tech leaders to Utah to provide unique insights and inspiring advice for our vibrant innovation community.”
Nadella became Microsoft CEO in February 2014 after holding leadership roles in both enterprise and consumer businesses across the company. He joined the company in 1992. He led research and development for the company’s Online Services Division and was vice president of the Microsoft Business Division. Before becoming CEO, he was executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group.
Before joining Microsoft, Nadella was a member of the technology staff at Sun Microsystems.
Originally from Hyderabad, India, Nadella lives in Bellevue, Washington. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago. He serves on the board of trustees to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as well as the Starbucks board of directors.