Adobe names Shantanu Narayen as its new CEO

Adobe announced its Board of Directors has appointed current president and chief operating officer Shantanu Narayen as its president and chief executive officer, effective December 1, 2007.

Narayen replaces Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen, who will serve the remainder of his term on Adobe’s Board of Directors through the Spring of 2008 and continue in a strategic advisory capacity through the end of fiscal year 2008.

Prior to this, Narayen was the COO of Adobe since January 2005. Narayen also served as executive vice president of worldwide products and helped drive Adobe’s successful expansion into the enterprise market. In that role, he also led Adobe’s efforts to build more integrated solutions across product lines and successfully extended the company’s flagship product lines to reach new markets. He previously held a mix of key product research and development positions, including senior vice president of worldwide product development and vice president and general manager of Adobe’s engineering technology group.

Before joining Adobe in 1998, Narayen was co-founder of Pictra, Inc., an early pioneer of digital photo sharing over the Internet. Previously, he served as director of desktop and collaboration products at Silicon Graphics, Inc. and held various senior management positions at Apple Computer, Inc.

Narayen joined Adobe in January 1998 as vice president and general manager of Adobe’s engineering technology group. In January 1999, he was promoted to senior vice president, worldwide products and in March 2001 he was promoted to executive vice president, worldwide product marketing and development. In January 2005, Narayen was promoted to president and chief operating officer.

Narayen holds five patents and is a frequent speaker at industry and academic events. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. Narayen holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from Osmania University in India, a master’s degree in computer science from Bowling Green State University, and a master’s degree in business administration from the Haas School of Business.