Indo-Americans have hailed the appointment of Hyderabad (India) born 46-year-old Satya Nadella as the third Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of world's largest software firm Microsoft Corporation.

Distinguished Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said: Indo-American community is delighted and thrilled and feels honored by this appointment. A “smart choice”, Zed remarked.

Zed, who is Chairperson of Indo-American Leadership Confederation, noted: We applaud Nadella's appointment; an outstanding executive who has demonstrated to be a sincere and innovative leader and visionary in engineering, technology, strategy and business; committed to take Microsoft to the next level.

Congratulating Nadella on the appointment, Rajan Zed stated: We believe that well-respected and well-loved Nadella was the right choice for this near-impossible job in a complex company and we believe Nadella’s intellectual and technical talents and vision for future would make a positive impact to re-establish Microsoft's identity.

We hoped that Nadella would be given a free hand to take the company forward, Zed added

Joining Microsoft in 1992, Nadella was Executive Vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group. He reportedly earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka (India) and his hobbies include cricket and poetry. He reportedly hails from Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh (India) whose prominent residents included Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna and playback singer S. Janaki. Nadella becomes member of Microsoft’s Board of Directors also.

Founded in 1975, Redmond (Washington, USA) headquartered Microsoft claims to be the “worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential”. William H. Gates III is its Technology Advisor while John Thompson is Chairman of its Board of Directors. It has about 101 thousand employees.