Adobe names Anil Chakravarthy president and CEO; Shantanu Narayen to become executive chair

Software giant Adobe has appointed Anil Chakravarthy as its next president and chief executive officer, succeeding long-time leader Shantanu Narayen, who will move to the role of executive chair.

Chakravarthy, currently president of Adobe’s Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations, will join the company’s Board of Directors on 1 December 2026. Narayen will work closely with him during the transition to support Adobe’s ongoing transformation.

“Adobe’s opportunity ahead is limitless with our track record in creating new market categories and world-class products,” Narayen said in a statement. He described Chakravarthy as an experienced transformational leader with deep knowledge of Adobe’s business and a proven record of delivering category-defining products. “I could not be more confident that Anil is the right person to lead Adobe's growth in an AI-driven era,” he added.

Chakravarthy said he was energised by the chance to drive Adobe’s leadership in the next era of agentic software for creativity, productivity and customer experience. “Thanks to Shantanu's exceptional leadership in transforming Adobe's business model over the decades, we are well positioned to achieve Adobe's next chapter of growth,” he said.

Chakravarthy joined Adobe in January 2020 as executive vice president and general manager leading the Digital Experience business. In September 2020, he took on additional responsibility for worldwide field operations serving enterprise customers across Adobe’s full portfolio, and was promoted in December 2021 to president of Digital Experience and worldwide field operations. Before rejoining Adobe, he served for four years as chief executive of Informatica, the enterprise cloud data management company.