IIT-BHU alumnus Anil Chakravarthy is set to take over as Adobe CEO, succeeding Shantanu Narayen after his long tenure at the company.
Adobe has named Anil Chakravarthy as its next president and chief executive officer, marking a leadership transition at one of the world’s largest software companies.
Chakravarthy will take over as Adobe CEO on December 1, succeeding Shantanu Narayen, who has led the company since December 2007. Narayen will become executive chairman of Adobe’s board, while Chakravarthy will join the board as part of the transition.
The appointment means Adobe’s top executive role will remain in the hands of an India-origin technology leader. Chakravarthy, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) in Varanasi, has spent more than six years at Adobe and currently leads its Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations.
The decision follows a succession search led by Adobe’s special committee after Narayen announced in March that he planned to step down once a successor was identified.
From Varanasi to Silicon Valley
Chakravarthy’s career spans consulting, cybersecurity, enterprise software and cloud technology.
He completed a BTech in Computer Science and Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Varanasi, now IIT (BHU), before earning a master’s degree and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He began his professional career at McKinsey & Company, where he eventually co-led the firm’s e-business practice in its Silicon Valley technology office.
He later moved to VeriSign and then spent close to a decade at Symantec, holding senior positions covering information security, endpoint protection, encryption and data loss prevention. His responsibilities also included involvement with Symantec’s product operations in India.
His first CEO role came at Informatica. Chakravarthy joined the enterprise cloud data management company in 2013 as executive vice president and chief product officer, and became chief executive in 2015, remaining in the role until 2020.
Experience With Business Transformation
Chakravarthy’s time at Informatica is particularly relevant to his new role at Adobe because he helped lead the company’s transition from a traditional software model towards cloud and subscription services.
He became acting CEO when Informatica was taken private in a $5.3 billion transaction and subsequently led the company through a major shift in its business model.
That experience has parallels with one of Adobe’s most important transformations under Narayen. Adobe moved away from boxed perpetual software licences and towards its subscription-based Creative Cloud model, fundamentally changing how customers bought and used its products.
Chakravarthy joined Adobe in January 2020 as executive vice president and general manager of its Digital Experience business. Later that year, he also took responsibility for worldwide field operations.
He became president of Digital Experience and global field operations in December 2021 and most recently took charge of the renamed Customer Experience Orchestration business, alongside global sales, professional services, and customer support.
What Chakravarthy Has Done at Adobe
Chakravarthy’s experience at Adobe has largely been concentrated in enterprise software rather than the consumer-facing creative products that made the company famous.
During his tenure, the Customer Experience business crossed $1 billion in quarterly revenue. He also oversaw the acquisition and integration of Workfront and, more recently, Semrush.
His responsibilities have included products and platforms such as Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe GenStudio, Adobe CX Enterprise and Brand Visibility.
Adobe’s board said Chakravarthy had expanded the company’s Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations through what it described as innovation-led growth.
Frank Calderoni, Adobe’s lead independent director and chair of the CEO search committee, said the board had unanimously concluded that Chakravarthy was the right leader for Adobe’s next phase.
“I’m energized by the opportunity to fuel growth and drive Adobe’s leadership in the next era of agentic software for creativity, productivity and customer experience,” Chakravarthy said.
Adobe’s Next Challenge Is AI
Chakravarthy will inherit Adobe at a moment when artificial intelligence is reshaping the software industry.
The company has been adding generative and other AI capabilities across products including Photoshop, Acrobat and its enterprise software portfolio. Adobe has also been trying to demonstrate that AI can become a meaningful source of recurring revenue rather than simply a feature added to existing products.
Adobe raised its annual profit forecast in June and said its AI-first annual recurring revenue had more than tripled year over year to above $500 million.
At the same time, investors have become increasingly cautious about software companies facing potential disruption from AI-native competitors. Adobe’s share price has declined during a difficult period for the broader software sector.
Competition has also intensified. Canva has expanded its position in design software, while a growing number of AI-powered image, video and creative tools can perform tasks that previously required specialised software and significant user expertise.
Adobe’s own attempted acquisition of Figma highlighted the changing competitive landscape. The company agreed to buy the collaborative design platform for about $20 billion but abandoned the transaction in 2023 after facing regulatory opposition in Europe and the UK.
Shantanu Narayen’s 18-Year Legacy
Chakravarthy will succeed a CEO who has overseen one of the most consequential transformations in Adobe’s history.
Narayen became CEO in December 2007, taking charge before Adobe made the full transition to its subscription model. Under his leadership, Adobe expanded Creative Cloud while growing its Digital Experience and Document Cloud businesses.
The shift towards subscriptions transformed Adobe’s revenue model and helped position the company as one of the leading software businesses serving creative professionals, enterprises and digital consumers.
Narayen’s decision to step down therefore comes at another inflection point, with AI now creating a new technology cycle that could alter how creative and productivity software is built and consumed.
As executive chairman, he will remain involved with Adobe while Chakravarthy takes operational control of the company.
Another India-Origin CEO at a Global Technology Company
Chakravarthy’s appointment adds another India-origin leader to the top ranks of major global technology companies.
Satya Nadella leads Microsoft, Sundar Pichai is CEO of Alphabet, Arvind Krishna heads IBM, and Neal Mohan leads YouTube.
Adobe’s transition is particularly notable because it involves one India-origin CEO succeeding another. Narayen, who grew up in Hyderabad, has spent nearly two decades at Adobe’s helm. Chakravarthy now takes over with a very different technology challenge.
His background in cloud transformation, enterprise software and business operations could prove particularly relevant as Adobe tries to integrate AI into its products without weakening the businesses that have made it successful.
Chakravarthy Takes Over at a Turning Point
The leadership transition is more than a routine CEO succession.
Adobe is entering a period in which its creative software, enterprise products and subscription model are all being tested by rapid advances in AI. The company must persuade customers that its ecosystem remains valuable even as increasingly capable AI tools lower the barriers to creating images, video, documents and other digital content.
Chakravarthy’s December 1 appointment puts that challenge directly in his hands.
For Adobe, the next chapter will be about defending the strengths built during Narayen’s tenure while finding the next major growth engine.
For Chakravarthy, it will be a move from leading a major part of Adobe’s enterprise business to determining the direction of the entire company.
