From IIT Varanasi to Silicon Valley peak: Who is Adobe's newly appointed CEO Anil Chakravarthy?

Adobe has named Anil Chakravarthy as its new president and chief executive officer (CEO), succeeding Shantanu Narayen, who led the company for more than 18 years.

In an announcement on Thursday, the American multinational software company said Chakravarthy will assume the new role on December 1 and Narayen will transition to the role of executive chair.

“I could not be more confident that Anil is the right person to lead Adobe's growth in an AI-driven era, and I look forward to working closely with him in my new role as executive chair,” Narayen said in a statement.


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David Wadhwani, the president of Adobe’s Creativity and Productivity Business and a contender for the top post, announced his departure from the company after a five-year stint.

“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,” Wadhwani said in a LinkedIn post.

Anil Chakravarthy: An IIT alumnus

An alumnus of Banaras Hindu University, Chakravarthy is the president of Adobe’s Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations.

Chakravarthy joined Adobe in January 2020 as executive vice president and general manager leading the company's Digital Experience business.

In September 2020, he took on the additional responsibility of leading the company’s worldwide field operations, serving enterprise customers across Adobe’s full portfolio of products, including creativity and productivity.

In December 2021, he was promoted to president of Digital Experience and worldwide field operations.

Before his current role, Chakravarthy served as CEO for four years at Informatica, a global leader in enterprise cloud data management. He originally joined Informatica in 2013 as executive vice president.

Before joining Informatica, Chakravarthy acquired broad experience in the technology industry through executive roles at Symantec, VeriSign and McKinsey & Company.

Chakravarthy received a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, and a Master of Science and Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Honoured and incredibly excited for what's ahead at Adobe. Our customers, employees (best in the world!) and AI innovation are top of mind, as always. Deep gratitude to our Chair & CEO, Shantanu Narayen, and the Adobe Board of Directors for their trust in me. Adobe’s best days are ahead,” Chakravarthy said in a post on LinkedIn.

Indians at the top in Silicon Valley

Chakravarthy now joins a growing list of Indian-origin executives at the helm of some of the world’s biggest technology companies. Earlier this year, CRED founder Kunal Shah was named global head of WhatsApp, while Indian-origin executive Asha Sharma took over as CEO of Microsoft Gaming, succeeding Phil Spencer. Rahul Patil also joined AI company Anthropic as chief technology officer last October.

The list has grown steadily in recent years. In 2023, Neal Mohan became CEO of YouTube, while Ravi Kumar S took over as CEO of Cognizant.

At the top of this club are Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella, who lead Google-parent Alphabet and Microsoft, respectively. Pichai became Google CEO in 2015 and took over as Alphabet CEO in 2019. Nadella has led Microsoft since 2014 and is widely credited with reshaping the company by putting cloud computing and AI at the centre of its growth strategy.

They are joined by other veteran Indian-origin leaders, including Shantanu Narayen, who has headed Adobe since 2007, and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna. Krishna has spent 35 years at the company and has played a key role in steering several major transformations during his tenure.