One Hundred and Seventy-Five Days to a Name

On March 12, 2026, Adobe told the market that its chief executive of 18 years would leave as soon as the board found someone to replace him. Shares fell 7% in extended trading. No date was attached to the search.

It ran 175 days.

On September 3, Adobe named Anil Chakravarthy, president of its Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations, to become president and chief executive on December 1. That left 89 days between the announcement and the handover, and a stock to answer for. Adobe shares lost 25% in 2024 and another 21% in 2025. By the day of the announcement they were down 18% in 2026.

The Search And Its Casualty

Frank Calderoni, the lead independent director who led the special committee, called the process a "rigorous selection process" and said the board acted unanimously.

The announcement carried a second piece of news. David Wadhwani, president of Adobe's creativity and productivity business for nearly five years, was leaving. CNBC had previously reported that he was seen as a strong contender for the job, in part because of his role in the company's bid to acquire Figma. He wrote on LinkedIn that it was "the right moment for me to start a new chapter".

The board picked one candidate. Another walked out.

The Decisions On His Record

Chakravarthy joined Adobe in January 2020 as executive vice president and general manager of Digital Experience. By September 2020 he also ran worldwide field operations, the organization serving enterprise customers across Adobe's full portfolio. In December 2021 he became president of both.

Adobe credits him with championing the acquisitions and integration of Workfront and Semrush, and with leading products including Adobe CX Enterprise and GenStudio.

Another Adobe deal ended differently. The company sought to acquire Figma, regulators pushed back, and the two companies called off the agreement, leaving Adobe to pay Figma a $1 billion breakup fee.

Why He Came In The First Place

Before Adobe, Chakravarthy was chief executive of Informatica, the enterprise data-management company, for four years, after joining it as an executive vice president in 2013. Earlier roles ran through Symantec, VeriSign and McKinsey & Company. He is a computer scientist by training: a Bachelor of Technology from the Institute of Technology, Varanasi, then a master's degree and a Ph.D. from MIT.

He explained the move to Adobe to CNBC in 2021. Informatica's partnership with Adobe had connected him with Shantanu Narayen. "A lot of the reason I came was the opportunity to work with him and work with the leadership team at Adobe", he said.

Narayen is the man Chakravarthy replaces on December 1. He will not be far away. Narayen becomes executive chair and, in Adobe's words, will work closely with his successor through the transition. Narayen's own verdict in the announcement: "I could not be more confident that Anil is the right person to lead Adobe's growth in an AI-driven era".

The Precedent He Will Follow

Narayen joined Adobe in 1998 and became chief executive in 2007. Under him the company moved from software licenses to subscriptions for its Creative Cloud bundle, and its stock rose more than sixfold, while the S&P 500 gained about 350% over the same stretch.

In a memo to employees in March, he wrote that he would stay on as chair to support the next chief executive, just as Adobe's co-founders John Warnock and Charles Geschke had stayed on when he took the job. He recalled what first drew him to the company: "a relentless desire to innovate in every functional area of the company", along with the people he met while interviewing.

The handoff Chakravarthy is about to receive has a template inside the building. The outgoing chief sits nearby, and the founders once did the same for him.

The Argument He Inherits

The complication is not the quarter. On the day Narayen's exit was announced, Adobe reported first-quarter revenue of $6.40 billion, up about 12% from a year earlier and ahead of the $6.28 billion analysts expected. Shares still tumbled. They were already down 23% for the year, part of a broader software selloff sparked by concerns about what artificial intelligence would do to the industry.

Calderoni said the board saw a leader who had "transformed and expanded" the business he ran. Whether that record answers the market's objection is the question the next quarters will settle. The record so far shows a company growing revenue while investors doubt the category.

Chakravarthy has named his own target. He said he was energized by the chance to lead Adobe into "the next era of agentic software for creativity, productivity and customer experience."

Eighty-nine days remained on September 3. The first chapter of that era begins on December 1.