Zain Nadella, son of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, passed away on Monday. Zain, born with cerebral palsy, was 26. The news was confirmed by Microsoft.
Nadella has previously described how the birth of his Zain had a "deep impact" on him. He recounted that he was 29 when he and his wife, Anupama, had their first child. He reminisced being both excited and nervous at that time, and struggling thereafter to come to terms with their son's condition. "For the first multiple years I struggled with it. It was only in watching Anu and what came much more naturally to her...seeing her giving him the best shot is when I realised that I needed to step up as a parent," he had said in a chat with former cricketer Anil Kumble in an Indian visit.
The episode, which Nadella described as a defining moment in his life, also shaped him into the leader he is today. A person is a culmination and combination of one's life experiences, Nadella said adding that he had also come to deeply appreciate the value of empathy in life and workplace. "There is no way we are going to succeed in something like that if we don't have deep sense of empathy. I think of empathy as not just as something nice to have, but core to innovation agenda in a company," he added.