Adobe replaces CEO with customer experience leader

Adobe’s search for a new CEO is over: It has promoted Anil Chakravarthy, president of its customer experience orchestration business, to the top role. It has taken six months to find a successor to outgoing CEO Shantanu Narayen, who announced in March that he would step back from the CEO role, remaining with the company as chairman. There had been much speculation that he would be replaced by Adobe’s president of creativity and productivity, David Wadhwani, who was responsible for the digital media business segment that generates around three-quarters of the company’s revenue. Having missed out on the top job, however, he has chosen to leave Adobe, announcing his departure on LinkedIn. Chakravarthy was responsible for the development of several products, including Adobe CX Enterprise, GenStudio and Brand Visibility, as well as the introduction of CX Enterprise Coworker. He takes over at a shaky time for Adobe: Its stock price has tumbled dramatically in the past few years as the rise of AI has meant workers can lay out content and manipulate photos without needing Adobe products. Chakravarthy, who will initially work in tandem with Narayen, will have his work cut out for arresting the current decline.