Shantanu Narayen

Shantanu Narayen (Telugu: శంతను నారాయణ్; born 27 May 1963) is an Indian American business executive and the CEO of Adobe Systems. Prior to this, he was the president and chief operating officer since 2005. He is also the president of the board of the Adobe Foundation.

He grew up in Hyderabad, India, the second son of a mother who taught American literature and a father who ran a plastics company. He went to Hyderabad Public School in Hyderabad. Narayen holds a Bachelor of Science in electronics engineering from Osmania University in India, a Master of Business Administration 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 started his career at Apple. After Apple, Narayen served as director of desktop and collaboration products for Silicon Graphics, then co-founded Pictra Inc. a company that pioneered the concept of digital photo sharing over the Internet.

Narayen joined Adobe in 1998 as a senior Vice-President of worldwide product research, was later promoted to executive vice president of worldwide products, and appointed to his current post 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, University of California at Berkeley.

Promotion to CEO

On November 12, 2007, Adobe Systems announced in a press release that Bruce Chizen would step down from his role as Chief Executive Officer effective December 1, to be replaced by Shantanu Narayen.

Narayen is paid an annual salary of $875,000 for his role as chief executive.

He was paid a total remuneration of $15.7 million in 2013.

In 2009, Narayen was considered one of "The TopGun CEOs" by Brendan Wood International, an advisory agency.

In 2011, US President Barack Obama appointed him as a member of his Management Advisory Board.