The turnaround artist Satya Nadella

Time lists the Microsoft CEO as one of the most influential people of 2015

Every year, Time magazine puts together a list of its top 100 most influential people for that year, and this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made the cut. Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of cloud storage solution Box, wrote Nadella’s entry, saying that despite Nadella being a long-time Microsoft employee, his assignment as CEO changed Microsoft for the better. Levie says in Time’s entry, “Satya Nadella is setting Microsoft up for greatness again.

For decades, Microsoft had controlled the software world, but its grip slipped with the rise of mobile and cloud technologies. Though a longtime employee, Satya brought a fresh and almost revolutionary perspective to the CEO job, breaking with the past by building for new platforms first.” “In his short but impactful tenure, he has focused on driving openness where Microsoft was once closed, even when it has meant supporting competing services in the process.

Changes that once would have been considered blasphemous—releasing open-source software, building on iOS and Android and even making Windows free in some cases—are turning Microsoft around,” says Levie. The Box CEO says, “Satya is basically the star of one of those teen movies where the parents go out of town and the kid takes control of the place. And it’s been great.”