Adobe Appoints Anil Chakravarthy as CEO as Shantanu Narayen Moves to Executive Chair Role

• Adobe named Anil Chakravarthy as its next president and CEO, effective December 1.

• Shantanu Narayen will become executive chair after 18 years leading the company.

• Chakravarthy will also join Adobe’s board during the leadership transition.

• Adobe shares have weakened amid investor concerns over AI disruption.

• Senior executive David Wadhwani also announced plans to leave the company.

Adobe has named Anil Chakravarthy as its next president and chief executive officer, setting up a major leadership transition at one of the world’s best-known creative and enterprise software companies.

The company announced on Thursday that Chakravarthy will take over the top role on December 1, succeeding longtime CEO Shantanu Narayen. Chakravarthy most recently served as president of Adobe’s customer experience orchestration and worldwide field operations business. As part of the transition, he will also join Adobe’s board of directors.

Narayen, who has led Adobe for 18 years, will move into the role of executive chair. Adobe said he will work closely with Chakravarthy to support a smooth handover. Narayen had announced in March that he planned to step down from the CEO position after a long tenure that began with his joining Adobe in 1998.

In a statement, Narayen said Adobe continues to have major opportunities ahead, pointing to the company’s history of building new product categories and expanding its market reach. He described Chakravarthy as a transformational leader with strong values, integrity and a deep understanding of Adobe’s business.

Chakravarthy joined Adobe nearly seven years ago after previously serving as CEO of Informatica, an enterprise data management company. His connection with Adobe and Narayen developed through Informatica’s partnership with the software maker.

In a 2021 CNBC interview, Chakravarthy said one of the major reasons he joined Adobe was the opportunity to work with Narayen and Adobe’s leadership team. His elevation now places him at the center of Adobe’s next phase as the company faces a rapidly changing software market shaped by artificial intelligence.

The leadership change comes at a challenging time for Adobe’s stock. Investor concern has grown around the possibility that AI tools could disrupt traditional software companies, particularly those focused on design, creativity and digital productivity. Adobe’s shares surged during the AI-driven technology rally in 2023 but have struggled since then.

The company’s stock declined 25% in 2024 and fell another 21% in 2025. So far in 2026, shares are down 18%. Following the CEO announcement, Adobe shares slipped about 2% in extended trading.

Alongside the CEO transition, Adobe also disclosed the departure of David Wadhwani, one of its most prominent senior executives. Wadhwani has spent nearly five years as president of Adobe’s creativity and productivity business, a key division that includes many of the company’s flagship tools.

Wadhwani had previously been viewed as a strong candidate to succeed Narayen. CNBC had reported that he was considered a serious contender, partly because of his central role in Adobe’s attempted acquisition of design platform Figma. Adobe and Figma eventually abandoned the deal in 2023 after facing regulatory challenges.

In a LinkedIn post, Wadhwani said he plans to explore and test several company ideas of his own. He wrote that while Adobe remains important to him, he believes this is the right time to begin a new chapter.

Wadhwani also expressed confidence in Chakravarthy’s leadership, saying he had worked alongside him in recent years and believes Adobe is well positioned under his direction.

Chakravarthy’s appointment marks one of Adobe’s most significant leadership changes in nearly two decades. Narayen helped oversee the company’s shift from boxed software to cloud-based subscriptions, a transformation that reshaped Adobe’s business model and turned products such as Creative Cloud and Document Cloud into major recurring revenue engines.

Now, Chakravarthy will inherit a company navigating another major technological shift. With generative AI altering how consumers and businesses create images, videos, documents and marketing content, Adobe is under pressure to show that it can both defend its core products and lead in emerging AI-driven workflows.

The company has already introduced AI tools across several platforms, but investors remain watchful about whether those offerings can strengthen Adobe’s competitive position and support future growth.

For Adobe, the transition from Narayen to Chakravarthy signals continuity in leadership as well as a push toward the next era of software innovation. The new CEO will be expected to balance Adobe’s established creative software dominance with the need to adapt quickly to AI-driven disruption across the technology industry.