Microsoft CEO faces questions about controversial remarks

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Microsoft's new CEO was in the Bay Area Monday, pushing the company's ever more powerful cloud computing platform. But some reporters were more interested in asking him about something else.

"It's great to be in San Francisco this morning to talk about our cloud," said CEO Satya Nadella.

He came to talk about cloud computing, but there was a cloud of a different kind over the company's new CEO. And it wasn't the cloudy weather he clearly brought with him from Seattle for an event about Microsoft's massive data centers.

Most of the presentation was highly technical. But that all changed when Microsoft opened the floor for questions. In fact, some reporters say that's the whole reason they showed up.

"More interesting for the press was the opportunity to push Nadella on some of the comments that he made last week about equal opportunity and equal pay for women," said Reuters technology reporter Christina Farr.

On Oct. 9, he made headlines. At a conference for women in tech, he was asked: "So what do you advise to women who are interested in advancing their careers?"

His answer, in part, was this, "It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along."

Many women disagreed, and Nadella issued an apology. This was his first time taking questions since then.

"You know, the last week and a half or so has been a humbling learning experience for me," he said.

Microsoft had given broadcasters a feed from Nadella's microphone, but turned it off before the questions began. They wouldn't turn it back on when we asked, and later said it was a mistake.

Meanwhile, Nadella said he made a mistake.

"I was wrong in the way I answered that one question," he said. "I took my own personal experience, and perhaps the lucky breaks I got through the mentors and sponsors I had, and spread it on half of humanity."

Nadella said he's learned Microsoft pays women an d men equally for the same job, but that the company is still male-dominated, with 29 percent women overall and only 17 percent among engineers.

"And that's what I want to, us as a company and as an industry, to continue to make progress on," he said. "That's the learning that came for me."

"That is good to see from a CEO, someone who is willing to admit their mistakes," Farr said.

Nadella says he wants to go further by starting mentorship programs and appointing female executives.

"And the more of them that we have, the more people will look at them and say, 'that's an inspiration,'" he said.