Anil Chakravarthy will become president and chief executive officer of Adobe on December 1, 2026, and will also join the board, the company said on September 3. He succeeds Shantanu Narayen, who has led Adobe for more than 18 years and will transition to executive chair to support the handover.
Chakravarthy has run Adobe's customer experience orchestration and worldwide field operations for the past six years, after joining from data-management company Informatica, where he was chief executive for four years. Adobe's board said it "unanimously determined" he is the right leader for what Narayen called Adobe's "next chapter of growth."
Replacing an 18-year chief executive
Narayen disclosed in March 2026 that he would step aside once a successor was in place. In the company's announcement, Narayen said Chakravarthy "is an experienced transformational leader who leads with values, integrity and a deep knowledge of our business" and cited his "proven record of building and delivering category-defining products."
The agentic-software mandate
Chakravarthy inherits a company navigating the AI transition that reshapes creative software, with new entrants competing for Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro workflows. In his own statement, he said he was "energized by the opportunity to fuel growth and drive Adobe's leadership in the next era of agentic software for creativity, productivity and customer experience."
The December 1 handoff
Narayen will remain closely involved as executive chair through the transition. Investors will read Chakravarthy's first full quarter and Adobe's next investor update for signals on how the customer-experience playbook he built inside Adobe extends across the wider creative and productivity portfolio.
