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Schoolmates of Satya Nadella, the new chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation, the information technology (IT) giant, expect him to be at the 30th reunion of their batch, at the end of this year.
Nadella studied at Hyderabad Public School (HPS), Begumpet (a central locality here), between July 1978 and April 1984. For the 25th reunion in 2009, he was present here for three days.
"In 2009, he spent one day at the school, and for the next two days, we partied with our families. At that time, we proposed to meet at Las Vegas for the 30th reunion in 2014," Faiz Khan, secretary of the HPS Society and a Nadella classmate, told Business Standard. He said soon after the official announcement of their friend's elevation to the top operational post at the iconic company, they e-mailed congratulations for the achievement.
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"We have not yet communicated with him on phone. We're quite eager to hear from him about his choice of place for the reunion in December. It might take place either in Vegas or in India," said Khan.
The management of HPS held a general assembly on the school premises on Wednesday to celebrate his achievement. It was attended by G Jayanand, school principal when Nadella was a student, and others who studied with him. "We didn't invite the parents of Nadella today, keeping in mind their privacy," said Khan.
For students of HPS, Nadella had offered a taste of innovation with the Microsoft outreach programme, Ispark, in 2011. The school was the first in India to partner with the company to train students in robotics; Nadella was present for its launch. Every year, around 100 students of the school, mostly from Classes 8 to 10, develop robots with software and technical support from Microsoft. "Hopefully, with Nadella at the helm, we expect more such programmes from MS for students over here," said Khan.
Some employees of the Microsoft office in the city said they were impressed on reading the mail addressed to them by the new CEO on Tuesday evening. In his mail, Nadella said: "I am honoured, humbled and excited."
An employee with the company for eight years said: "It is definitely a good development for the people of the city. This would boost the spirit of every IT professional in the country."
The corporate communications team at Hyderabad confirmed Nadella was here a few months earlier on an official visit.
