Microsoft's India-born CEO Satya Nadella has been named the company's Chairman, an additional role in which he will lead the work to set the agenda for the board. Microsoft Corp on Wednesday announced that the board's independent directors unanimously elected Nadella to the role of board chair.

The company said Mr Thompson, who took over as chairman from the software giant's co-founder Bill Gates in 2014, will serve as lead independent director.

In this role, Nadella will lead the work to set the agenda for the board, leveraging his deep understanding of the business to elevate the right strategic opportunities and identify key risks and mitigation approaches for the board's review, the company said in a statement.

Nadella, 53, succeeds Thompson, who as the lead independent director, will retain significant authority including providing input on behalf of the independent directors on board agendas, calling meetings of the independent directors, setting agendas for executive sessions, and leading performance evaluations of the CEO, the technology giant said.

In addition to these role changes, the board declared a quarterly dividend of USD 0.56 per share. The dividend is payable September 9, 2021, to shareholders of record on August 19, 2021.

Mr Nadella, who took over as CEO in 2014 from Steve Ballmer, has been instrumental in scaling up its business including billion-dollar acquisitions like LinkedIn, Nuance Communications and ZeniMax.

The top-level executive change comes just over a year after Bill Gates stepped down from the board, saying he would focus on philanthropic works of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's biggest charities.

The company had last month said it conducted a probe into Mr Gates' involvement with an employee almost 20 years ago after it was told in 2019 that he had tried to start a romantic relationship with the person.

Microsoft had declined to comment on whether its board had decided Mr Gates should go.