Biography of Shantanu Narayen Chairman and CEO of Adobe
Today we talk about the Biography of Shantanu Narayen Chairman: Shantanu Narayen was born on 27th may in year 1962 in Hyderabad, Telangana, India into an affluent family. His father has a plastic factory and mother was a professor. He grew up alongside his older brother. At first, he wanted to become a journalist but his parents advised him to study engineering instead of journalism.
In an interview Narayen said that ‘the only real options available to him back then were engineering and medicine, and he was afraid of the sight of blood.
After attending Hyderabad public school, He went to the university College of Engineering, Osmania university (UCE), where he had studied engineering in electronics and communication. After completion of graduation, he then moved to the US to further his studies and eventually got a master’s degree in computer science engineering from Bowling Green State university, Ohio, and a master degree in business administration from Haas School of business administration from university of California.
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Start of career
Ignoring the campus placement from college Shantanu Narayen joined a start-up named measurex Automation system in 1986. A well-funded and successful venture, it provided the fresh graduated with some more needed, real-world experience. In 1989, he joined the famous company named APPLE where he worked in many management positions for the next 6 years.
But, in mid-90s, during the period called as ‘internet boom’, he and his associates came up with the idea of Image sharing website and in 1996, Pictra Inc, one of the first picture sharing websites, was made. They had felt that the world is finally going to upgrade from analogue to digital photography and built an ecosystem that let clients drop off their roll of film and get digital pictures. But, after 1 year, it was seen to them that the funding business model had not quite maturity. Narayen himself said that he never calculated his career progress nor was he recruited or interviewed again after his 1st job. While most opted to switch from engineering product to management field after completion of MBA but he did not that believing ‘if it feels right, it should work out’. During his work tenure at apple, he was mentored by Gurshan Singh Sandhu of Apple talk, from whom he learned how to challenge others and oneself. After, APPLE, he briefly served as the director of desktop and collaboration products for silicon graphics.
But in the year 1198, he came to adobe systems as a senior vice-president of worldwide product research and in time, he became the Chief Vice President of worldwide products. In the month of November 2007, it was announced that Bruce Chizen would resign as CEO on 1st December. The 45 years old, Narayen assumed his current position as the Chairman & CEO of adobe systems, as replacement of Bruce Chizen. After seeing his incredible work style and extensive understanding of the technology sector, it took him only 10 years to rise to the top position at one of the biggest companies of the world, a central figure in Adobe’s success, Narayen has made Adobe a necessary tool for all sites and apps and secure over 300 deals for them. In 2005, he had played a vital role in Adobe’s $3.4 billion acquisition of macromedia and in 2009, in the $1.8 billion takeover of Omniture.
He is very conscious about the rapidly changing aspects of the necessity of innovation and avoiding stagnancy. As of 2017, his total remuneration was $ 20 million. Apart from his career at Adobe, he is a member of Board of Directors at Stario Inc., Dell Inc., and the advisory board of the Haas school of business, University of California at Berkeley, his alma mater, he also serves as the president of Adobe Foundation, the philanthropic branch of the company that devotes its sources to many different charity across the world.
Let’s have look at his awards and achievements
- In the year of 2008, Narayen won the Haas School’s Business leader of the year award.
- Narayen received the American India Foundation business and philanthropic leadership award in 2009.
- That year, he was ranked among top Gun CEOs on the list of Brenden Wood International agency.
- The international imaging industry association conferred on him the annual leadership award in 2010.
- He was also awarded with Global Innovator Award at Nasscom’s 7th Annual Global leadership Awards.
- He was award with doctorate by his alma mater, Bowling Green state university.
Personal Life
In late 80s, He married to Reni, who met him during his college days. They have two sons together, Shravan and Arjun. The family currently lives in Palo Alto, and city in San Francisco. Once Narayen said that he has keen interest in golf if he did not been a businessman, he would surely have been a professional golfer. He is presently 57 years old and follows Hinduism and has a citizenship of America. These are some of the basic information of Shantanu Narayen, who was born in India and presently holding one the greatest CEOs of the world and has American citizenship. Narayen once represented India in sailing at and Asian Regatta. We wish him a bright future ahead.
