New Delhi: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been awarded the Indian of the Year 2014 in the Global Indian section. He is third CEO of technology giant Microsoft.
Nadella has successfully avoided fading into the giant shadows of his predecessors Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Sensing the wind, he is steering Microsoft from a device and services company into cloud services, the department he once headed.
This is the ninth edition of the awards which were introduced in 2006. The awards adhere to a robust procedure in selecting the awardees which is finalised by a Jury consisting of a select group of distinguished personalities.
The jury consists of Padma Vibhushan Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, Padma Bhushan Deepak S Parekh, Padma Shri Mohanlal Viswanathan Nair, Padma Shri Kiran Karnik and tennis ace Leander Paes.
Other nominees were:
Vishal Sikka: The first non-founder to head Infosys, Vishal Sikka has in a short span of six months managed to shake the company out of its slumber. Stemming the attrition levels, which saw one in 5 employees leaving, he has managed to persuade a number of old employees to return. Sikka is focusing now on new technology areas like cloud and digital, which analysts say hold the key to future growth
Vivek Murthy: 37-year-old Vivek Murthy made history when he was appointed America's youngest Surgeon General and the first of Indian descent. Murthy's non-profit organization, Visions Worldwide, is involved in AIDS education in India. He is the creater of TrialNetworks, which works to improve clinical trials for new drugs
Sundar Pichai: His recent appointment to the Head of core products and services at Google makes Sundar Pichai one of the most powerful executives in the company, second only to CEO Larry Page. He is the brain behind the launch of Google browser Chrome. Under the new leadership role, Pichai will directly undertake products such as search, maps, Google+, commerce, advertising and infrastructure in addition to his existing role as a head of Android, Chrome and Google Apps.
Harin Thaker: Harin Thaker serves as the CEO of Aeriance Investments, a leading European investment firm managing over a billion pounds in real estate funds. An industry veteran, he has been the ex-Head of Real Estate Finance International at Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG. Harin is also the Chairman of the UK chapter of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, which is amongst the world's largest NGOs, that provides mid-day meals to over 1.4 million school children in India every day. Under his leadership, the UK chapter has sent over €1 million to India to support their programme and is targeting to feed five million children in India by 2020.
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