Adobe names Chakravarthy CEO

Adobe said Anil Chakravarthy, president of Adobe's Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations, will become its next CEO replacing Shantanu Narayen Dec. 1.

Narayen said Chakravarthy is "an experienced transformational leader who leads with values, integrity and a deep knowledge of our business. He has a proven record of building and delivering category-defining products that serve our broad range of customers."

Chakravarthy joined Adobe in January 2020 as head of the Digital Experience business unit. In September 2020, he took on Adobe's worldwide field operations. In Dec. 2021 he took over as president of the Digital Experience business as well as field operations. Before joining Adobe, Chakravarthy was CEO at Informatica.

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"I'm 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," said Chakravarthy.

Chakravarthy's appointment comes after he developed a bevy of enterprise customer experience products including Adobe CX Enterprise, GenStudio and Brand Visibility. He also was critical to integrating the acquisitions of Workfront and Semrush.

Adobe will report earnings Sept. 10.

The fallout from the Adobe CEO transition was immediate. David Wadhwani, President of Adobe's Creativity and Productivity Business, was in the running for the CEO job and is leaving the company. In a LinkedIn post, Wadhwani said:

"As much as Adobe means to me, I've decided this is the right moment for me to start a new chapter, and it's a great moment for Adobe to do the same as Anil steps into the CEO role. I've had the privilege to work alongside Anil the last few years and I leave confident in where he'll take Adobe."

Wadhwani said he "has a few company ideas I'm eager to pursue and will plan to spend the next few months pressure-testing."