Anu Nadella, wife of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, calls the vibe in their Seattle-area home “extreme controlled chaos.” Despite the fact that she’s married to the leader of one of the world’s top technology companies, that could sound like just about any house.
In a new feature in Good Housekeeping magazine, the Nadellas open up their home for the first time and provide a glimpse of the challenges and the normalcy of it all. It’s timed to a wave of press the CEO is doing for his first book, “Hit Refresh,” which was released this week.
In a rare interview, @JaneFrancisco talks with @Microsoft CEO @SatyaNadella and his wife Anu about family life: https://t.co/nOTsEhh22T pic.twitter.com/IW06eWvBaT
— Good Housekeeping (@goodhousemag) September 27, 2017
Despite all the responsibility he has steering the ship at Microsoft, it’s nice to get a sense — through a series of tidbits in the story — of how Nadella regards life as a husband and a father of three children.
- For modern parents who struggle with devices and screen time for kids, take note that even the guy who runs Microsoft has to deal with that. Good Housekeeping says the Nadellas set limits on screen time and on what websites the children can visit. “We get reports on what they’ve been doing on their computers, and they know that. So it’s very transparent,” Satya told the magazine. Anu added that “technology for entertainment is always going to be a negotiation in our house. How many movies, what kinds of video games.”
- The couple credits technology with keeping their 21-year-old son Zain alive. He has cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia and is legally blind, and Anu said technology is “more than just something to waste time on.” With a light tap of his head on a sensor, he can choose his own music. And Microsoft’s new app, Seeing AI, helps people with visual impairment. “They can hold up their phone and it’ll ‘see’ people — interpret their emotions, interpret a menu,” Satya said. “[You can] cook with a recipe, go grocery shopping, read labels or walk into a conference room with confidence.”
- Kids should have dogs! Of their puppy, Winston, Anu said, “There is a different sense of companionship and responsibility that comes with it — that emotional sense that there is a being waiting for you to come back.”
Learn more about the couple’s approach to parenting and what has helped Satya become more empathetic in Good Housekeeping’s main feature as well Anu’s personal essay on what having a child with special needs has taught her about kindness.
Satya Nadella will discuss his book in an interview on stage at the upcoming GeekWire Summit in Seattle. The Microsoft CEO is donating all proceeds from “Hit Refresh” to Microsoft Philanthropies.
