Adobe Names Indian-Origin Executive Anil Chakravarthy as Next CEO, Narayen Moves to Executive Chair

Adobe has named Anil Chakravarthy, an Indian-origin executive who currently leads the company's marketing and analytics software business, as its next chief executive officer, in a leadership transition that surprised parts of Wall Street and puts a company veteran at the helm just as generative AI tools threaten to upend its core creative software franchise.

Chakravarthy will formally step into the CEO role on December 1, while current chief executive Shantanu Narayen, who has led Adobe since 2007, will move into the newly created position of executive chair. Chakravarthy joined Adobe in January 2020 and will also join the company's board of directors as part of the transition.

A surprise pick

The decision came as something of a surprise within the company and among investors, since the division Chakravarthy has run — marketing and analytics software — generated about $5.86 billion in revenue in the fiscal year ended November 2025, roughly a quarter of Adobe's total sales, and is considerably smaller than the flagship Creative Cloud business. Many analysts and insiders had expected David Wadhwani, who headed Adobe's creative software unit accounting for roughly three-quarters of company revenue, to be the leading internal candidate. Wadhwani announced separately that he would be leaving Adobe following the announcement, writing on LinkedIn that he had "decided this is the right moment" to start a new chapter.

Prior to joining Adobe, Chakravarthy served as chief executive of data integration company Informatica, which has since become part of Salesforce. Adobe executives credited him with helping expand agentic AI capabilities across the company's product lines during his tenure running the marketing and analytics division.

Why the timing matters

The leadership change lands at a pivotal moment for Adobe, whose stock has fallen roughly 52 percent since the start of 2024 amid growing investor anxiety that cheaper, AI-powered content-creation tools from competitors could erode the dominance of products like Photoshop and Premiere. Narayen is widely credited with steering Adobe through one of software's most successful transitions to a subscription-based business model, but the company has faced mounting questions over whether that same playbook can hold up against a wave of AI-native rivals. Adobe's board began publicly searching for Narayen's successor in March, and Thursday's announcement brings that search to a close.

Reactions from Wall Street analysts were mixed. Some noted that Chakravarthy's experience running a full company as Informatica's CEO gave him credibility despite leading a smaller division, while others flagged that his biggest task will be reversing perceptions that Adobe is losing ground to free or low-cost AI tools. Adobe shares slipped roughly 2 percent in extended trading following the announcement.

The India angle

Chakravarthy's elevation adds to a growing roster of Indian-origin executives leading major global technology companies, a trend that has drawn continued attention in India given the outsized visibility of chief executives of Indian origin at firms including Google, Microsoft and IBM. Adobe separately has been expanding its India-linked dealmaking, having recently acquired Indian AI automation startup Rilo to bolster its push into agentic software tools — a strategic direction Chakravarthy is now expected to help steer as CEO.

This is an original summary based on public reporting. See our editorial policy for how we source, write, and correct our stories.