Satya Nadella is at this time, the CEO of Microsoft.
Born in India, the 53-year-old CEO managed to bring the company that was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, to be one of the most respected, powerful and valuable companies in the world.
But some things are certain to happen, and one of which, is seeing Nadella being replaced eventually.
In the company's SEC filing, Microsoft said that it will actively consider women and minority candidates to succeed the CEO title from Satya Nadella.
This makes it one of the most explicit statements from a major tech company about CEO diversity to date.
Microsoft said its Board of Directors "is committed to actively seeking highly qualified women and individuals from minority groups to include in the pool of potential CEO candidates."
While it's usual for a company to include statements in annual regulatory filings about CEO succession, but it's very rare for a company to also include statements about diversity.
Diversity in tech companies in the U.S. was rather rare.
It was reported that in 2016, ten large technology companies in Silicon Valley did not employ even a single black woman. Three had no black employees at all. Six did not have a single female executive.
In fact, the industry was, and still is dominated by White male.
Prominent tech companies often say that they are trying to improve, but hiring diverse staff is difficult. And Microsoft was one of them.
But it was following George Floyd incident that tech companies are forcing themselves to put more importance to women, minorities and people of colors.
Microsoft is among the many tech companies that have released data showing their relative lack of racial and gender diversity. Nadella, who was born in Hyderabad, in the southern India, has repeatedly said that he is is committed to boosting diversity.
With his attempts, Nadella is considered one of the most notable people who brought diversity to the company's executives when he succeeded Steve Ballmer in 2014.
Nadella was even named as the top-rated CEO for his diversity efforts based on reviews from employees, according to an annual survey from company review site Comparably.
And with this proxy statement on SEC, Microsoft seeks to acknowledge the social tension. With the intension to increase diversity, the company’s board members show their eagerness to seek minority candidates who could one day take the CEO title from Satya Nadella.
In recent years before this, Microsoft's board-level diversity has shown some increases.
In its proxy for example, the company claims that 7 out of the 12 board members are “diverse”, meaning that they are either women or non-White board members. In 2014, shortly after Nadella took over, five out of the 10 board members were “diverse.”
Microsoft that released diversity figures for the first time in 2014, showed that Microsoft was 71.0% male globally and 60.6% White in the U.S.
By comparison, in 2019, Microsoft was 70.7% male globally and 52.1% White in the U.S.
“As we see the everyday racism, bias and violence experienced by the Black and African American community, the tragic and horrific murders of so many, the violence in cities across the US, it is time for us to act in all arenas,” said Nadella, following George Floyd's case.
He added that he “will double the number of Black and African American people managers, senior individual contributors, and senior leaders in the United States by 2025.”
In June, Nadella even detailed in a blog post how he wants Microsoft to address this racial injustice.
Further reading: Inequality Cannot Be Solved By Technology. Companies 'Need Real Action To Change Things'