Adobe Chair and CEO Narayen to headline upcoming Presidential Lecture

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Adobe Chair and CEO Shantanu Narayen, who has transformed one of the world’s largest and most diversified companies into an industry innovator and pioneer, will join Purdue University President Mung Chiang for a conversation about AI on March 25 as part of the university’s Presidential Lecture Series.

The lecture, titled “AI’s Next Wave: Delivering Intelligence Inside Software,” is at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, in Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall. Doors will open at 3:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but a ticket is required. For tickets and more information, go here. The Purdue Convocations bag policy will be in effect for this event.

“The goal of our Presidential Lecture Series is to expose our students, faculty, staff and the broader campus community to leaders of different fields. And bringing Adobe’s CEO to Purdue is a unique opportunity for our campus,” Chiang said. “Under Chief Executive Narayen’s transformative leadership for almost two decades, Adobe is changing how we create and communicate through digital experiences, serving many customers ranging from students and artists to enterprises in the digital world.”

Narayen has transformed Adobe into an industry innovator by pioneering a cloud-based subscription model for its creative products, establishing the global standard for digital documents, and creating and leading the explosive digital experience category. Today, he’s driving the company’s AI agenda; delivering transformative innovations across creativity, productivity and customer experience; and expanding Adobe products to more users.

Narayen joined Adobe in 1998 as vice president and general manager of its engineering technology group. He became president and chief operating officer in 2005, CEO in 2007, and chair of the board in 2017. During his tenure as CEO, the company has achieved record revenue.

He is vice chair of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum and sits on the board of Pfizer. He previously served as a director of Dell and is a past member of the U.S. President’s Management Advisory Board.

Under his leadership, Adobe has been recognized for its inclusive, innovative, and award-winning workplace and culture, including being continuously named a Great Place To Work and a Most Admired Company by Fortune. Narayen has been named among the world’s leading executives, including Barron’s World’s Best CEOs and Fortune Businessperson of the Year lists, and named a Top CEO by Glassdoor based on employee feedback. He is a recipient of India’s civilian honor Padma Shri and the Economic Times Global Indian of the Year award.

Before joining Adobe, Narayen held product development roles at Apple and Silicon Graphics and co-founded an early photo-sharing startup, Pictra.

Narayen holds five patents. He has a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from Osmania University, a master’s degree in computer science from Bowling Green State University and a master’s degree in business administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He once represented India in sailing at an Asian regatta.

About the Presidential Lecture Series

Launched in 2014 by then-Purdue President Mitch Daniels and continued by President Mung Chiang, the Presidential Lecture Series exposes Purdue students and the broader community to inspiring ideas, courageous leadership, and models of civic engagement and civil discourse. The Presidential Lecture Series has had dozens of guests of many viewpoints and perspectives and hosted some of the great intellectual, business and civic leaders of our time. As one of the world’s premier centers of scholarly leadership, Purdue is — appropriately and necessarily — a regular venue for great thinkers across a wide variety of disciplines.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.