Five years ago, Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft.

In that timeframe, Microsoft has been rejuvenated — it's enjoyed a stretch as the most valuable company in the world, beating Apple for the first time since 2010.

More than anything, Nadella has gotten a ton of credit for overcoming Microsoft's once-cutthroat corporate culture, and getting everybody on the same page.

Here's how Nadella went from a rank-and-file Microsoft engineer, all the way up to CEO.

When Satya Nadella first took the reins as Microsoft CEO on February 4th, 2014, the company was losing steam fast.

Microsoft Windows 8 had been a disaster. Microsoft employees were constantly battling behind the scenes for supremacy. And all the while, consumers and developers alike were losing the faith.

Times change.

Back in December, Microsoft's market cap had exceeded that of Apple's — something that hasn't happened since President Obama was in office and the Zune was still a thing. It's an exclamation point on Nadella's five-year reign, in which he refocused the company and led it to new heights.

Here's how Satya Nadella came to Microsoft and executed a startling turnaround that led it to be worth more than Apple, with details taken from his book "Hit Refresh" and elsewhere:

This article has been updated since its original publish date in 2016.