Adobe is casting a wide net to find its next chief executive, weighing two senior internal leaders alongside outside candidates as the company prepares for its first leadership transition in nearly two decades.
Shantanu Narayen, who has served as CEO for 18 years, announced in March that he would step down once a successor is named. He will stay on as Board Chair. The move came, somewhat poetically, right after his 100th earnings call at the helm.
The candidates and the process
Two internal names have surfaced as frontrunners. David Wadhwani, who runs Adobe’s Creativity & Productivity division, and Anil Chakravarthy, who leads another major business unit, are both under consideration.
Adobe’s board has set up a special committee to manage the search, led by Lead Independent Director Frank Calderoni. The committee’s mandate covers both internal evaluation and external recruitment, with a particular emphasis on finding someone who can navigate the generative AI landscape that is reshaping Adobe’s core markets.
