Adobe named Anil Chakravarthy as its next president and CEO, effective December 1, 2026. The San Jose-based software company announced the leadership change on September 3. Chakravarthy will join Adobe's Board of Directors as he takes charge. The move comes as Adobe expands its AI strategy across creativity, productivity and customer experience.
Shantanu Narayen will become executive chair after leading Adobe for nearly two decades. He will work closely with Chakravarthy to support a smooth transition and Adobe's ongoing transformation. The board unanimously selected Chakravarthy after a formal CEO selection process. The decision places an experienced company insider at the center of Adobe's next growth phase.
Chakravarthy currently leads Adobe's Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations. He joined Adobe in January 2020 as executive vice president and general manager. His responsibilities later expanded to include global field operations serving enterprise customers across Adobe's product portfolio.
Before joining Adobe, Chakravarthy served as CEO of Informatica for four years. He also held senior roles at Symantec, VeriSign and McKinsey & Company. His background spans enterprise technology, customer experience and large-scale business transformation.
The leadership change arrives as Adobe faces stronger competition from AI-focused design platforms. Companies such as Figma and Canva continue expanding their AI capabilities across creative workflows. Adobe also aims to build leadership in agentic software for creativity, productivity and customer experience.
Narayen praised Chakravarthy's experience and called Adobe's future opportunity ‘limitless.’ Chakravarthy said he feels energized to drive growth during the next era of agentic software.
The transition keeps Narayen involved in Adobe's strategic direction while giving Chakravarthy operational leadership. The shift could shape Adobe's response to rapidly changing AI competition across the software industry.
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