Microsoft gave the title of vice chairman to Brad Smith, the company's president. Smith has been with the company since 1993, but unlike Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, and previous top executives at Microsoft like Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer, Smith's background is in law, rather than technology. He was chief counsel of Microsoft before he was named president in 2015.
“This reflects the unique leadership role that Brad plays for the company, our board of directors and me, with governments and other external stakeholders around the world,” said Nadella.
Microsoft also announced it is increasing its quarterly dividend by 11%, lifting the payment to shareholders by 6 cents to 62 cents a share, it announced late Tuesday.
The software giant said it would repurchase up to $60 billion worth of its own stock. The new share repurchase program, which has no expiration date, may be terminated at any time, it said.