<p>The self-confessed cricket and poetry lover, a 22-year veteran of the company, was born in Hyderabad, India. He married his high school sweetheart and has three children.</p><p>He has said "family, curiosity and a hunger for knowledge all define me. I buy more books than I can finish. I sign up for more online courses than I can complete". Only the third chief executive of the technology giant, he faces a tough challenge. His predecessor, Steve Ballmer, saw the company lose almost a third of its value during his 17-year tenure.</p><p>Once the biggest company in the world, the software giant has been eclipsed by the likes of Google and Apple in the last 10 years and largely missed out on the mobile and tablet revolution of the last five years, with products like Surface failing to gain much traction.</p><p>"It feels a bit like IBM in the early Nineties," says Philip Letts, chief executive of the services platform blur and a former Silicon Valley insider. "You had this monolith that was reliant on legacy technologies that were becoming increasingly less relevant. Microsoft's in exactly the same place now."</p><p><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/challenges-for-satya-nadella-the-new-man-in-microsofts-office-9110544.html">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2014/02/05/microsoft-office-update-the-ceo-now-has-a-desk/">Microsoft Office Update: The CEO Now Has a Desk</a> (Wall Street Journal (blog))</p><p><a href="http://247wallst.com/apps-software/2014/02/06/breaking-microsoft-into-two-companies/">Breaking Microsoft Into Two Companies</a> (24/7 Wall St.)</p><p><a href="http://www.crn.com.au/News/371442,aussie-resellers-wishlist-for-new-microsoft-ceo.aspx">Aussie resellers&#039; wishlist for new Microsoft CEO</a> (CRN Australia)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=d67Dr_rzzV_rrxMyDSiUBfl0qqvqM&authuser=0&ned=us">932 additional articles.</a></p>