SAN JOSE, September 4: Indian-origin technology executive Anil Chakravarthy has been appointed as the next President and Chief Executive Officer of US-based software major Adobe, succeeding long-serving CEO Shantanu Narayen. Mr. Chakravarthy will assume the new role on December 1, 2026, and will also join Adobe’s Board of Directors.

Mr. Narayen, who has led Adobe as CEO for more than 18 years, will transition to the role of Executive Chair. He will continue to work closely with Mr. Chakravarthy to ensure a smooth leadership transition and support the company’s transformation.

Mr. Chakravarthy is currently 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. He subsequently took on additional responsibilities overseeing worldwide field operations and was promoted to President of Digital Experience and worldwide field operations in December 2021.

Before joining Adobe, Mr. Chakravarthy served as the Chief Executive Officer of cloud data-management company Informatica for four years. Earlier, he held senior positions at Symantec, VeriSign and McKinsey & Company.

An alumnus of the Institute of Technology, Varanasi, Mr. Chakravarthy holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science and Engineering. He also earned a Master’s degree and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

His appointment comes at a crucial time for Adobe as the software industry undergoes rapid changes driven by artificial intelligence. The company is facing increasing competition from AI-focused challengers, while working to strengthen its own AI-powered products and services.

Mr. Chakravarthy said he was honoured to lead Adobe at what he described as a pivotal moment and emphasised the company’s opportunity to drive growth in the era of AI and agentic software. Adobe said his leadership would focus on accelerating innovation across creativity, productivity and customer experience.

The leadership change marks the end of an important chapter for Adobe under Mr. Narayen, who has overseen the company's transformation into a major cloud-based software business during his tenure as CEO.