Nadella invited for Obama's last State of the Union address

Washington

The White House yesterday released names of two dozen individuals who have been invited by the First Lady as her guests to watch Obama delivering the final State of the Union Address of his eight years in office to Congress.

One of the seats, would however remain vacant for the Victims of Gun Violence.

"We leave one seat empty in the First Lady's State of the Union Guest Box for the victims of gun violence who no longer have a voice – because they need the rest of us to speak for them," the White House said.

"To tell their stories. To honour their memory. To support the Americans whose lives have been forever changed by the terrible ripple effect of gun violence – survivors who've had to learn to live with a disability, or without the love of their life. To remind every single one of our representatives that it's their responsibility to do something about this," the White House said.

The White House said 48-year-old Nadella's Microsoft, has been a leader in expanding access to computer science in K-12 classrooms, and in Teach.org, a private public partnership to increase awareness of and support for the teaching profession.

In September, the company announced a new USD 75 million effort to expand computer science education, including opportunities for engineers from Microsoft and other companies with teachers to team-teach computer science.

"In October 2015, under Satya's leadership, Microsoft increased its paid leave benefits by eight weeks and now includes 20 weeks of paid leave for new mothers and 12 weeks for non-birth parents," the White House said.

Originally from Hyderabad, Nadella received a Masters in computer science and a Masters in business administration from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago, respectively.

Among others invited by the First Lady is US Army Veteran Naveed Shah of Pakistani origin.

Naveed grew up in Washington DC after immigrating to the US with his Pakistani parents.

"Like many immigrants who arrive here as children, Naveed noted that his birth country felt foreign while America is home. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 marked the ultimate distortion of Naveed's faith – something he set out to combat, enlisting in the US Army in 2006," the White House said.

"He served our country for four years and deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom," it said.