Adobe names another India-born CEO, Anil Chakravarthy to take over after Shantanu Narayen’s 18-year run

Adobe has named India-born executive Anil Chakravarthy as its new president and chief executive officer, succeeding Shantanu Narayen, who is stepping down after more than 18 years at the helm.The company said on Thursday that Chakravarthy will take over as CEO on December 1, while Narayen will transition to the role of executive chair.Chakravarthy currently serves as president of Adobe’s Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations. He joined Adobe in January 2020 as executive vice president and general manager of its Digital Experience business.“I could not be more confident that Anil is the right person to lead Adobe's growth in an AI-driven era,” Narayen said, adding that he looked forward to working with Chakravarthy in his new role as executive chair, as quoted by PTI.Chakravarthy, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, has held several leadership roles at Adobe. He took on responsibility for the company’s worldwide field operations in September 2020 and was promoted to president of Digital Experience and worldwide field operations in December 2021.Before joining Adobe, Chakravarthy served as CEO of enterprise cloud data management company Informatica for four years. He had joined Informatica in 2013 as an executive vice president and previously held senior roles at Symantec, VeriSign and McKinsey & Company.He holds a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT (Banaras Hindu University), along with a master's degree and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Meanwhile, David Wadhwani, president of Adobe’s Creativity and Productivity business and one of the contenders for the CEO position, announced his departure after five years with the company.“As much as Adobe means to me, I've decided this is the right moment for me to start a new chapter, and it's a great moment for Adobe to do the same as Anil steps into the CEO role,” Wadhwani said in a LinkedIn post.Chakravarthy, in his own post, said he was “honoured and incredibly excited” about what lies ahead, highlighting Adobe’s customers, employees and AI innovation as his priorities.Adobe's leadership transition comes as the software giant pushes further into artificial intelligence and seeks to expand its growth in an increasingly AI-driven technology landscape.Get the latest Business News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.