Adobe Systems, the publisher of Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, and other tools standard in every creative and business workflow has appointed Shantanu Narayen, 41, to the newly created positon of president and chief operating officer.
Narayen, a native of Hyderabad, India, was executive vice president of worldwide products since 2001, before which he was senior vice president of worldwide product development, where he oversaw all worldwide research and development for Adobe’s products. He created Adobe’s Product Technology Integration Group to focus on customer workflows, and helped to grow the Adobe India development center, making it the largest Adobe engineering site, second only to the United States.
During the past three years, Shantanu has worked closely with me running the day-to-day operations of Adobe’s global business,†said Adobe chief executive officer Bruce Chizen. “Under his leadership, Adobe has defined and implemented the product and marketing strategies that are driving our current growth. As Adobe continues expanding into the enterprise and other new market areas, I will increase my focus on the longer term strategies that will fuel the company’s future growth.â€
Prior to joining Adobe in 1998, Narayen co-founded Pictra Inc., a digital photo sharing software business. Previously, he was director of desktop and collaboration products at Silicon Graphics Inc. and, before that, held various senior management positions at Apple Computer, Inc.
In his new position, Narayen continues to report to Chizen and is responsible for engineering, product marketing and sales of Adobe’s software solutions for creative professional, consumer and enterprise customers worldwide.
Adobe Systems recorded revenue of $429.5 million in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year ended December 2004 as compared to $358.6 million reported for the same quarter in fiscal 2003.
Narayan is currently in Dehli to inaugurate the second phase of Adobe’s development center in Noida.