'Ex-Microsoft intern' Radhika Gupta on learning leadership from Satya Nadella: 'Thank you'

Edelweiss MF CEO and MD Radhika Gupta, and (right) Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Edelweiss Mutual Fund MD and CEO Radhika Gupta on Thursday thanked Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for the lessons in leadership he taught the world with how he managed to make the best out of a troublesome situation at Open AI this week and managed to rope in its popular but once-ousted CEO Sam Altman as the head of the tech giant's new advanced AI research team.

Gupta also revealed that she had interned with Microsoft early on in her career and the lessons that she learned from Satya Nadella were better than what is taught in management classes.

"And in the last 5 days, we saw wartime leadership from you Satya that no management class can teach and every CEO can learn from," Radhika Gupta wrote on X. "Thank you, A former Microsoft intern."

And in the last 5 days, we saw wartime leadership from you Satya that no management class can teach and every CEO can learn from.

Thank you,
A former Microsoft intern :) https://t.co/lJcqP5oxxK

— Radhika Gupta (@iRadhikaGupta) November 23, 2023

The Edelweiss Mutual Fund boss was not alone in her admiration of how the Microsoft CEO handled the crisis.

"Thanks for showing everyone what a world-class CEO looks like during a completely blindsided crisis. Astonishing, really," said Rowan Cheung, the founder of an AI newsletter. "Hat-tip to Satya Nadella for pulling one of the biggest coups of history and the future by hiring Sam Altman and team," wrote Anupam Mittal, the founder and CEO of People Group and Shaadi.com. "Watch Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg as they circle a depleted OpenAI destroyed eventually by its board, the very people who were put in place to protect humanity."

"I’m not happy with the PpenAI fiasco, but I love that message and it seems you’ve been an honorable and effective leader for a long time so happy thanksgiving," commented an X user while another called Nadella "America’s most underrated CEO."

Satya Nadella, who has been sharing updates regularly on social media ever since the crisis, said that the greatest privilege of his job is working with people who are driven by mission.

At the end of the day, the greatest privilege of my job is working with people who are driven by mission. These last 5 days, I saw people across OpenAI remaining calm and resolute in driving their mission despite all that was happening around them. And I saw people across…

— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 22, 2023

"These last five days, I saw people across OpenAI remaining calm and resolute in driving their mission despite all that was happening around them. And I saw people across Microsoft remain focused on our mission and serving our customers and partners, stepping up to help in every way," he wrote on X. "This is what I’m especially thankful for going into the Thanksgiving holiday. Thank you for your resolve and for the work you do each day to advance AI safely and responsibly and distribute its benefits to all of humanity."

Read more: Sam Altman: 'Satya Nadella and my top priority remains to ensure OpenAI continues to thrive'