Satya Nadella attends the Big Data conference in Turkey

Just before Satya Nadella got a special invite from Michelle Obama to witness Obama’s final State of the Union address on Tuesday from the First Lady’s Box, the Microsoft CEO was in Turkey. He visited ODTC (the Middle East Technical University) for the company’s IoT (Internet of Things) and Big Data conference.

Nadella, who was briefly on Microsoft’s Instagram account, posted a picture of him high fiving the teams there with a caption saying, “Can’t wait to see the next great innovations for our industry that will come from Turkey.”

The high five reminded one of all that talk in 2015 of the Microsoft CEO being a germophobe, after a video went viral of him surreptitiously brushing his hand after a handshake with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Yet Nadella’s grin while he slaps these palms belies those snide rumours.