Shantanu Narayen (born 27 May 1963) is an Indian-American business executive who has been chief executive of Adobe since December 2007 and its chairman since 2017. He led the company’s switch from selling boxed software such as Photoshop to cloud subscriptions, a change that was widely doubted at the time and multiplied Adobe’s revenue and value. He received the Padma Shri in 2019.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Shantanu Narayen |
| Born | 27 May 1963, Hyderabad, India |
| Age | 63 |
| Nationality | American (born Indian) |
| Post | Chairman and CEO, Adobe |
| Education | Hyderabad Public School; Osmania University (B.E. Electronics); Bowling Green State University (M.S. Computer Science); University of California, Berkeley (MBA) |
| Spouse | Reni Narayen |
| Children | 2 sons |
| Honour | Padma Shri (2019) |
Early Life
Narayen grew up in Hyderabad. His father ran a plastics business and his mother taught American literature. He attended Hyderabad Public School, whose former pupils also include Satya Nadella and Ajay Banga, and wanted at first to be a journalist. After an engineering degree at Osmania University he moved to the United States in the mid-1980s.
Career
He worked at the start-up Measurex, spent six years at Apple and was a director at Silicon Graphics. In 1996 he co-founded Pictra, an early service for sharing digital photographs on the internet.
He joined Adobe in 1998 as a vice-president of engineering, became president and chief operating officer in 2005, the year it bought Macromedia, and succeeded Bruce Chizen as chief executive two years later. He bought the web analytics company Omniture in 2009, creating a second business in marketing software.
In 2013 Adobe stopped selling new versions of its creative programs outright and offered them only by monthly subscription as Creative Cloud. Revenue dipped and customers protested, but within a few years the steady income made Adobe far larger. Later purchases included Magento and Marketo in 2018. A 20 billion dollar agreement to buy the design firm Figma was abandoned in December 2023 after regulators objected. Since 2023 the company has added its Firefly generative AI models across its products.
Personal Life
He met his wife, Reni, at Bowling Green; they have two sons and live in California. A keen sailor, he once represented India at an Asian regatta. He has served on the board of Pfizer and as a member of the US President’s management advisory board.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Shantanu Narayen born?
Shantanu Narayen was born on 27 May 1963 in Hyderabad, India and is 63 years old.
Featured image: Shantanu Narayen, chief executive of Adobe, May 2009. Photo by Jolie O’Dell, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
