Adobe Inc. ADBE Chief Executive

What Shantanu Narayen says in public, and what their own SEC filings show they own.

Shantanu Narayen

Shantanu Narayen

Chair & Chief Executive Officer · Adobe Inc.

CEO since 2007 and chair since 2017. Moved Adobe from boxed Creative Suite to the Creative Cloud subscription, bought Macromedia, Omniture and Marketo, and took the company from roughly $3 billion to more than $23 billion of annual revenue. On 12 March 2026 he told the board he intends to hand over the CEO role once a successor is appointed, staying on as chair; the search covers internal and external candidates and no successor had been named by the end of August 2026.

What they own

Ownership

Skin in the game
9/ 70
Level 1Steward

Narayen owns about 0% of Adobe Inc., worth $147.8M at the last close.

SEC filings
219
Stake 616,075 reported shares ≈ 0.2% of shares outstanding — no 13G on file, so an estimate 12/35
Founder Not assessed — whether they founded the company has not been researched Not assessed
Tenure No start date on record, so tenure scores nothing 0/10
Track record Not assessed — their prior companies have not been researched Not assessed
Direction Sold 75,000 shares ($18.3M) — more than a tenth of the stake — in the last year -10/15
Discipline 2 late Form 4s in 219 filings 7/10

Nobody has researched this person's career yet, so founder and track record are left out of the score and of the total above.

Score = stake band (35) + founder (15) + tenure (10) + track record (15) + 12-month direction (−10…15) + filing discipline (10). An axis we have not researched is left out of the score and of the total it is shown over. Every input links to a filing or to our own research; the bands are ours.

Reported · Forms 3, 4, 5 616,075 Every lot on the person's own filings, as of Jul 15, 2026
Last open-market trade Sale · $18.3M Apr 28, 2026 · 75,000 shares at $243.54 avg · no 10b5-1 plan
Paper trail 2 late filings Form 4 covering a 2016-01-24 option or RSU conversion in ADOBE SYSTEMS INC was filed 2016-01-27, 3 business days later; Section 16 allows two.
Reported Adobe Inc. shares Forms 3, 4 and 5 · as of 2026-07-15
0500K1M 20042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Jul 2026: net +4,261 shares across 2 movements (largest: exercise +8,298)Apr 2026: net −70,814 shares across 3 movements (largest: sale −75,000)Jan 2026: net +37,798 shares across 4 movements (largest: exercise +69,553)Oct 2025: net +3,379 shares across 1 movement (largest: exercise +1,254) 616,075

Dots mark the months the activity below moved the line. Hover one for that month's net move, how many movements it folds and the largest.

How the stake is held
SecurityHeld viaShares
Common Stockby trust363,724
Common Stockfamily trust251,952
Common StockDirect399
Reported as of 2026-07-15616,075
Held directly
0%
Vehicles
2 trusts or entities
Last filing
Jul 17, 2026
Activity · last 12 months 10 events folded from 37 filing lines · Every filing on EDGAR ↗
DateTypeWhat happenedSharesPriceValueNote
Jul 15, 2026 Exercise Option or RSU conversion across 4 lots +8,298 — — Through by trust
Jul 15, 2026 Tax Shares withheld for tax across 4 lots −4,112 $224.56 $923K Through by trust
Apr 28, 2026 Sale Open-market sale across 3 lots, $243.19–$244.78 −75,000 $243.54 avg $18.3M Through by trust · no 10b5-1 plan
Apr 15, 2026 Exercise Option or RSU conversion across 4 lots +8,299 — — Through by trust
Apr 15, 2026 Tax Shares withheld for tax across 4 lots −4,113 $244.66 $1.0M Through by trust
Jan 24, 2026 Exercise Option or RSU conversion across 2 lots +69,553 — — Through by trust
Jan 24, 2026 Tax Shares withheld for tax across 2 lots −34,483 $301.07 $10.4M Through by trust
Jan 15, 2026 Exercise Option or RSU conversion across 3 lots +5,443 — — Through by trust
Jan 15, 2026 Tax Shares withheld for tax across 3 lots −2,715 $304.09 $826K Through by trust
Oct 24, 2025 Exercise Option or RSU conversion +1,254 — — Through by trust
Every issuer Shantanu Narayen files as an insider of
CompanyRoleReportedBeneficial% of class
ADBE ADOBE INC. This page Chair and CEO 616,075
2026-07-15		 — —
DELL DELL INC · exited Director —
2013-10-29		 — —
MV Metavante Technologies, Inc. · exited Director —
2009-10-01		 — —

Reported is every lot on the person's own Forms 3, 4 and 5 — direct and through trusts. Beneficial is the figure stated on the latest Schedule 13D/G cover page, which can exclude shares the person disclaims and include options exercisable within 60 days, so the two are never added together.

Paper trail

219 filings under CIK 0001224154 · captured 2026-09-05 · All filings on EDGAR ↗

On the record with shareholders

Earnings calls

  1. Q3 FY2026 Sep 10, 2026 Narayen's last call as chief executive argued the installed base is the asset: more than a billion monthly active users growing 20%, creative freemium past 100 million, and the AI-first line — given its dollar figure here, past $650 million — as proof the freemium funnel monetises. The handover got its colour: two internal candidates, Chakravarthy chosen, David Wadhwani thanked on his way out, and a deliberate choice of new users over pricing actions. Read the call · 5 quotes →
In their own words

Podcasts, interviews & articles

4 recorded appearances

2026

Who else runs a company like this one

Every CEO we track →
Alex Karp Alex Karp Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) Tobias Lütke Tobias Lütke Shopify Inc. (SHOP) Marc Benioff Marc Benioff Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) Bill McDermott Bill McDermott ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW) Sridhar Ramaswamy Sridhar Ramaswamy Snowflake Inc. (SNOW)