Microsoft Chairman Satya Nadella’s son Zain passes away at 26

New Delhi: Microsoft informed that Zain Nadella, son of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft Corporation Satya Nadella and his wife Anu, died Monday morning, Bloomberg reported.

26-year-old Zain had reportedly been born with cerebral palsy.

The company informed its executive staff in an email that Zain had passed away while requesting the personnel to hold the family in their thoughts and prayers while giving them space to grieve privately.

In 2017, tech titan had shared an emotional account of his son Zain’s birth, and the forthcoming circumstances that changed his life forever, in his New York Times bestseller book ‘Hit Refresh’.

He recounted the time when he was 29, and his wife Anupama, an architect by profession, was pregnant. The couple was elated as they’d just begun a new life in Seattle, far away from their homeland India.

Their son Zain was born in 1996.

“In the apartment, we were renting next to the Microsoft campus, we spent months busily preparing for his arrival— decorating a nursery, putting plans in place for Anu to return to her career, envisioning how our weekends and holidays would change… We were ready to add a new joy to our life,” Satya wrote in his book.

“But things didn’t go as planned. During Anu’s 36th week of pregnancy, the baby didn’t move as much as it generally did. A routine check-up to the hospital quickly catapulted into an emergency Caesarean section. Zain was born at 11:29 p.m. on August 13, 1996, all of three pounds. He did not cry”.

“Zain had suffered damage caused by in utero asphyxiation, and he would require a wheelchair because of severe cerebral palsy. He would not be able to communicate verbally and will be dependent on his parents. He was legally blind”.

Talking about his devastated state during the birth of Zain, and how the couple cope with it, he further wrote, “Watching her in those first few days, weeks and beyond taught me a lot. Over time, Anu helped me understand that nothing had happened to me or to her, but something had happened to Zain. As his parents, it was up to us not to question “why,” but instead to do everything we could to improve his life”.

Satya adds that his wife Anu has always helped him become an empathetic person and a better father. He also says that his difficult experiences with the birth of his son, he tried for some advanced and convenient accessibility features at Microsoft for specially-abled people.

“He (Zain) is the joy of our family, whose strength and warmth both inspire and motivate me to keep pushing the boundaries of what technology can do. And I’ve found that the moments that so deeply change our lives can also be a catalyst to empower those around us”, Satya had said.

Meanwhile, Microsoft under Nadella has also taken initiatives like the Autism Hiring Program and Supported Employment Program in recent years.