The past week or so there’s been a lot of talk about a rumored upcoming shuffle on the executive level at Microsoft as we have seen a rather large exodus recently of various Microsoft executives. Part of the rumor is that Ballmer will be filling as many of the existing empty slots, as well as any that might be soon empty depending on his announcement, with people from within Microsoft that have more of an engineering background.

One of the prime spots obviously is the Server & Tools Business division since Ballmer has shown the current executive in charge, Bob Muglia, to the door. Well today comes the announcement from Microsoft that Ballmer has moved Satya Nadella into that plum position.

From the Microsoft Press Page page:

As president of the Servers and Tools Business (STB) at Microsoft, Satya Nadella is accountable for the overall business and technical vision, strategy, operations, engineering and marketing for Microsoft’s $15 billion business. STB is responsible for Microsoft infrastructure software, developer tools and cloud platform, including products such as Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center and the Windows Azure Platform.

Nadella and his team are tasked with leading Microsoft’s enterprise transformation into the cloud and providing the technology roadmap and vision for the future of business computing, while helping our customers and partners make the transition to the cloud platform by providing the necessary solutions, services and tools. Focusing on IT professionals and developers, STB is also chartered with providing Microsoft’s enterprise technology roadmap for the company’s largest customers and industry partners worldwide, to address some of their most challenging business and computing needs.

Does this fill the rumor about engineers starting to fill top spots at Microsoft?

Well before joining Microsoft Nadella was a member of the technology team at Sun Microsystems and has a master’s degree in computer science and a master’s degree in business administration so it would seem that he could fit the bill as far as the rumor is concerned. The business degree will stand him in good stead since the STB division is one of the principal cash cows for Microsoft bring in $15 Billion a year.