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In his university days in India, Satya Nadella, likely the next chief
executive officer of Microsoft Corp, was a relentless questioner.
"When all other students will quietly listen to what I would teach,
he will ask a lot of questions - 'why does it have to be like this, why
can't we do it like this?'," said Harishchandra Hebbar, who taught
digital electronics to Nadella at Manipal University.
(Also see: Who is Satya Nadella?)
"Sometimes it felt like he was just testing my patience," said
Hebbar, laughing.
That questioning nature has served Nadella well in his 22-year
career at Microsoft, the world's largest software company. Last year
he was promoted to run the company's fast-expanding cloud, or
Internet-based, computing initiatives.
His elevation to the top spot at Microsoft would end a five-month
search for a tech-savvy heavy-hitter to lead the company co-
founded by Bill Gates. A source familiar with the matter told
Reuters on Thursday that Nadella's appointment was likely,
although the board had not yet met to finalise it.
(Also see: Microsoft board close to naming Hyderabad-born Satya
Nadella as CEO)

Nadella grew up in Hyderabad, a technology hub that is home to
the biggest Microsoft research and development centre outside of
the United States.
His father was a member of the elite Indian Administrative Service
and a member of the Planning Commission during 2004-2009
under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. His father, B. N.
Yugandhar, who still lives in Hyderabad, declined to speak with
Reuters when reached by phone.
Born in 1967, Nadella attended the prestigious Hyderabad Public
School, where he met his future wife. Nadella studied electronics
and communication engineering, at Manipal University, where
people who knew him at the time described him as friendly,
modest and well-spoken.
Manipal is a mid-ranking private institution, and does not have the
cachet of the elite Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian
Institute of Management (IIM) where many of India's global power
players were educated.
Global Indian
If he gets the top job at Microsoft, Nadella would join the growing
list of Indian-born executives to head a major global corporation.
They already include PepsiCo Inc. CEO Indra Nooyi and Deutsche
Bank co-CEO Anshu Jain.
After graduating in 1988, Nadella, like many ambitious Indians,
moved to the United States to study, earning a master's degree in
computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Ganesh Prasad, a classmate of Nadella at Manipal who remains in
touch with him, recalled a conversation in 1991 when Nadella was
working at Sun Microsystems.
"We were having a conversation and talking about Sun as the
future of hardware and he was like: 'you know where I need to go?
I need to be in software and I need to be in marketing and I need to
be in Microsoft'," Prasad recalled by phone from Bangalore, where
he now lives.
Prasad, who worked for 20 years in the United States with Intel
Inc., said Nadella started with a base in technology and then
became interested in how to market it - a skill set that will be
called upon in his new role.
By comparison, Microsoft's previous CEO, Steve Ballmer, was
regarded more as a salesman and cheerleader than a technology
visionary.
"While he comes from a very strong technology background, his
outlook over the years has changed to: 'so, what, what am I going
to do with this thing? How do I position it? How do I make sense
of it all?'," said Prasad.
© Thomson Reuters 2014