Overview
- The board announced the appointment on Thursday and said Anil Chakravarthy will become president and CEO on December 1 and join Adobe’s board.
- Shantanu Narayen will step into the role of executive chair and the company said he will work closely with Chakravarthy to manage the handover.
- Chakravarthy is an internal executive who joined Adobe in January 2020, led its Digital Experience and Customer Experience Orchestration units, and previously served as CEO of Informatica.
- Markets reacted negatively after the announcement, with shares sliding in after-hours trading, and David Wadhwani, a senior contender for the job, left Adobe shortly after the news.
- The new CEO inherits a push to embed generative AI across products, pressure from AI-native rivals and recent regulatory rules in the EU, and investors will watch for a clear plan to sustain growth in Creative Cloud and enterprise offerings.