San Jose, California, USA: Adobe's board of directors has announced that Indian American technology executive and IIT Varanasi alumnus Anil Chakravarthy will become the company's next President and CEO, effective December 1, 2026. He will also join Adobe's board on the same date.
Chakravarthy, who currently serves as president of Adobe's customer experience orchestration business and worldwide field operations, will succeed Shantanu Narayen, who is stepping down as CEO after 18 years at the helm. Narayen will transition to the role of executive chair and will work closely with Chakravarthy to ensure a smooth leadership transition.
Chakravarthy holds a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Varanasi, formerly known as IT-BHU. He later earned his MS and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Reacting to his appointment, Chakravarthy said he was honored to lead Adobe at a pivotal time. He said he was looking forward to driving the company's growth and strengthening its leadership in the next era of agentic software across creativity, productivity and customer experience.
Chakravarthy also credited Narayen's leadership for positioning Adobe strongly for its next phase of growth and said he looked forward to working with the company's team and board as it continues to evolve in the era of AI.
Narayen praised Chakravarthy as an experienced transformational leader with a deep understanding of Adobe's business. He highlighted Chakravarthy's track record of developing category-defining products and said he was confident that he was the right person to lead Adobe's growth in an AI-driven era.
Frank Calderoni, Adobe's lead independent director, said the board had unanimously determined that Chakravarthy was the right leader for the company's next chapter of growth.
Chakravarthy joined Adobe in January 2020 as executive vice president and general manager, leading its digital experience business. In September 2020, he took on additional responsibility for worldwide field operations serving enterprise customers across Adobe's creativity, productivity and digital experience portfolio.
In December 2021, he was promoted to president of digital experience and worldwide field operations.
During his tenure, Chakravarthy has played a key role in expanding Adobe's customer experience orchestration business. According to the company's announcement, he has led the development of products including Adobe CX Enterprise, GenStudio and Brand Visibility, while also helping scale Adobe Experience Platform and introduce new AI-powered innovations such as CX Enterprise Coworker.
He also championed the acquisitions and integration of Workfront and Semrush.
Before joining Adobe, Chakravarthy served as CEO of Informatica for four years. He had initially joined Informatica in 2013 as executive vice president.
Earlier in his career, he held executive positions at Symantec, VeriSign and McKinsey & Company, gaining extensive experience across the technology and consulting sectors.
With Chakravarthy taking over as CEO, Adobe is set to enter its next phase of leadership with a strong focus on AI, agentic software, creativity, productivity and customer experience.
