- Works listed
- 0
- Career highlights
- Honours
- 1
- Most recent 2019
- Profile views
- 2
- 0 followers
Shantanu Narayen is the chairman and chief executive of Adobe, maker of Photoshop and Acrobat. CEO since 2007, he moved the company from boxed software to cloud subscriptions, a shift that greatly increased its value.
Biography
Education
Narayen grew up in Hyderabad, where his father ran a plastics business. He studied electronics engineering at Osmania University, then took a master’s in computer science at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and an MBA at the University of California, Berkeley.
Silicon Valley
He worked at Apple and Silicon Graphics and co-founded Pictra, an early digital photo-sharing company, before joining Adobe in 1998 as head of engineering.
Adobe
Narayen became Adobe’s CEO in 2007 and chairman in 2017. In 2013 he made the risky move of ending sales of boxed Creative Suite software in favour of Creative Cloud subscriptions, and the company’s revenue and value rose sharply. He has since expanded Adobe into digital marketing and generative AI tools.
Recognition
He received the Padma Shri in 2019 and has served on the boards of Pfizer and the US–India Strategic and Partnership Forum.
Timeline
-
1998
Joins Adobe
-
2005
Becomes president and COO
-
2007
Becomes CEO
-
2013
Switches to Creative Cloud subscriptions
-
2017
Becomes chairman
-
2019
Padma Shri
Awards and honours
-
Padma Shri
2019
Did you know?
-
1
He co-founded a photo-sharing start-up in the 1990s.
-
2
He moved Adobe from boxed software to subscriptions.
-
3
He studied at Osmania University in Hyderabad.
Connections
Frequently asked
Who is Shantanu Narayen?
Shantanu Narayen is the chairman and chief executive of Adobe, maker of Photoshop and Acrobat. CEO since 2007, he moved the company from boxed software to cloud subscriptions, a shift that greatly increased its value.
Where is Shantanu Narayen from?
Shantanu Narayen was born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana).
What is Shantanu Narayen known for?
Shantanu Narayen is best known for Leading Adobe’s shift to subscription software and the cloud.
What awards has Shantanu Narayen received?
Notable honours include Padma Shri (2019).
References
- Shantanu Narayen — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 27 October 2026.
- Shantanu Narayen — Hindi Wikipedia. Wikipedia (Hindi). Retrieved 27 October 2026.
- Shantanu Narayen (Q2622748) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 27 October 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Shantanu Narayen”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
Featured in
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 27 October 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Shantanu Narayen.” TrackFame, last updated 28 October 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/shantanu-narayen
Discussion 0
Sign in or create an account to join the discussion.
No comments yet — be the first.
More in Technology
Technology
Sachin Bansal
Co-founder of Flipkart and founder of Navi
Born 1981
Technology
Nithin Kamath
Co-founder of the discount brokerage Zerodha
Born 1979
Technology
Satya Nadella
Chairman and CEO of Microsoft
Born 1967
Technology
Ritesh Agarwal
Founder of the hotel chain OYO
Technology
Sundar Pichai
CEO of Google and Alphabet
Born 1972
F. C. Kohli
First CEO of Tata Consultancy Services, father of India’s IT industry
1924 – 2020