Shantanu Narayen (born May 27, 1963) is an Indian-American business executive and the CEO of Adobe Systems. Prior to this, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer beginning in 2005. He is also Chairman of the Adobe Foundation Board.
He was raised in Hyderabad, India, as the second son of a mother who taught American literature and a father who ran a plastics business. He attended Hyderabad Public School. Narayen holds a Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering from Osmania University in India, an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.
On May 7, 2011, Narayen received an honorary Doctor of Applied Science degree from his alma mater, Bowling Green State University.
He began his career at Apple. After Apple, Narayen served as Director of Desktop and Collaboration Products at Silicon Graphics, then co-founded Pictra Inc., a company that pioneered the concept of sharing digital photos over the Internet.
Narayen joined Adobe in 1998 as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Research. He was later promoted to Executive Vice President of Worldwide Products and was appointed to his current role in January 2005 at the age of 41.
He also serves on the board of Dell Inc. and the advisory board of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
On November 12, 2007, Adobe Systems announced in a press release that Bruce Chizen would step down as CEO effective December 1, and would be succeeded by Shantanu Narayen.
Narayen receives an annual salary of $875,000 for his role as CEO.
He earned total compensation of $15.7 million in 2013.
In 2009, Narayen was recognized as one of the “TopGun CEOs” by Brendan Wood International, an advisory firm.
In 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama appointed him to the President’s Management Advisory Board.