Who Is Anil Chakravarthy? Adobe's Newly Appointed CEO Amid Mounting Pressure From AI-Native Rivals

Adobe has turned to a familiar face to lead it through one of the most turbulent stretches in its history, naming company insider Anil Chakravarthy as its next Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He takes over from Shantanu Narayen, who steps back into the role of Executive Chair after 18 years at Adobe's helm, as the software giant looks to fend off mounting competitive pressure from AI-native rivals.

Who is Anil Chakravarthy?

Chakravarthy is no newcomer to Adobe's upper ranks. He joined the company in January 2020 as Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Digital Experience business, taking on Worldwide Field Operations later that year. Reporting directly to Narayen at the time, he was brought in to steer Adobe's enterprise-facing Experience Cloud unit at a moment when the company was betting big on the 'experience economy'.

His rise inside Adobe was steady. In December 2021, he was elevated to President of the Digital Experience business, a post he held until January 2026, when he moved into the newly created role of President, Customer Experience Orchestration Business, a title he held right up to his appointment as CEO. Along the way, he also took on the additional responsibilities of Chief Operating Officer, giving him a hand in running Adobe's broader day-to-day operations.

Track record building Adobe's enterprise business

During his tenure leading Digital Experience, Chakravarthy oversaw Adobe's acquisition and integration of Workfront, and the segment crossed $1 billion in quarterly revenue under his watch. His portfolio spanned data and insights, content personalisation, customer journey management, and commerce and advertising tools - the enterprise software stack Adobe has increasingly leaned on as growth in its flagship Creative Cloud business has matured.

A CEO pedigree from informatica

Chakravarthy arrived at Adobe with prior experience running a public company. He was CEO of Informatica, the enterprise cloud data management firm, from 2015 to 2020, having joined it in 2013 as Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer. At Informatica, he guided the company through a $5.3 billion buyout that took it private and led its pivot toward cloud and subscription-based services - a playbook that mirrors the transformation Adobe itself underwent under Narayen.

Before Informatica, Chakravarthy spent close to a decade at Symantec in senior roles spanning information security, endpoint protection, encryption, and India product operations, and he also worked at VeriSign and began his career as an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company.

Engineering roots, MIT credentials

Chakravarthy holds a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, and both a Master's and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a technical grounding that positions him as an engineering-minded operator rather than a pure business-side executive.

Taking over at a pivotal moment

Narayen first signalled his intent to step aside in March 2026, when Adobe announced he had decided to transition out of the CEO role once a successor was named, with Frank Calderoni, the company's Lead Independent Director, chairing the special board committee tasked with the search. News of the transition triggered a sharp reaction from investors, with Adobe shares tumbling as concerns grew over the company's ability to hold its ground in the design and productivity software market as generative AI tools reshape how content is created.

Chakravarthy now inherits a company that, even as it touts tripling AI-first annual recurring revenue and double-digit subscription growth, faces intensifying questions about whether its core Creative Cloud and Document Cloud franchises can stay indispensable in an era of AI-native design and content tools.