Shantanu Narayen, who is among the top five chief executive officers that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet on Thursday in Washington, is an Indian businessman and chairman, president, chief executive officer (CEO) of Adobe Inc. PM Modi will have a one-on-one meeting with the five CEO of top American companies.
Narayan became the president and CEO of Adobe in December 2007. Before this, he was Adobe’s president and chief operating officer since 2005.
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Narayen started his career in 1986 by joining a Silicon Valley start-up called ‘Measurex Automation Systems’, which made computer control systems for automotive and electronics customers. He worked there for three years and then moved to tech giant Apple, where he was in senior management positions from 1989 to 1995.
After serving almost 6 years in Apple in the senior management position, Narayen worked as the director of desktop and collaboration products for Silicon Graphics.
In 1996 Narayen co-founded Pictra Inc., a company that pioneered the concept of digital photo sharing over the Internet.
As for his collaboration with Adobe, Narayen joined the company in 1998 as senior vice-president of worldwide product development. He held the position for three years till 2001.
From 2001 to 2005 Narayen was the executive vice-president of worldwide products at Adobe and in 2005 he was appointed president and chief operating officer. Currently, Narayan is chairman, president, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Adobe. He succeeded Bruce Chizen as the CEO.
Under Narayen’s leadership, Adobe was led to a phase of transformation. This includes shifting Adobe’s creative and digital document software franchises – which include flagship programs such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Acrobat/PDF – from the desktop to the cloud base.
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Adobe also entered the digital experiences category, an expansion that began with the company’s acquisition of Omniture in 2009 under Narayan’s tenure.
Narayen received an honorary doctorate in May 2011 from Bowling Green State University, where he completed his graduation from.
He was also appointed as a member of ex-US President Barack Obama Management Advisory Board in 2011 and was also the lead independent director on the board of directors for Pfizer, and vice-chairman of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum.
Narayen also received the Padma Shri award in 2019.