Satya Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer as Microsoft"s CEO back in 2014 and since then, the company"s stock price has skyrocketed from roughly $38 in February 2014 - when this transition occurred - to $257 right now. Now, Microsoft has announced that Nadella will assume a new role in addition to his current one, and will be the chairperson for its board of directors.
The board has unanimously elected Nadella for this role. Nadella will be replacing John W. Thompson, who will go back to being the board"s lead independent director, a position he previously held between 2012 and 2014. Thompson will continue to hold a significant amount of autonomy in the board since he will be representing the independent board of directors, initiating meetings with them, determining agendas for executive sessions, and even taking the lead on evaluating the CEO"s performance.
Meanwhile, Nadella will be setting the agenda for the board, and Microsoft says that he will be "leveraging his deep understanding of the business to elevate the right strategic opportunities and identify key risks and mitigation approaches for the board’s review."
Additionally, the board has also disclosed that a quarterly dividend of $0.56 per share is payable to shareholders on September 9, 2021. The ex-dividend date will be August 18, 2021, which means that if anyone becomes a shareholder after this date, they won"t receive the next dividend payment.