Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen and Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga have been named by Fortune among the Businessperson of the Year 2020, a list topped by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.The Fortune 2020 Businessperson of the Year is Musk for a second time. The publication said in a year dominated by crisis and uncertainty, other leaders also stood out and “achieved the remarkable”.On Narayen, ranked 8th on the list, Fortune said under his leadership, the 38-year-old provider of design and publishing tools has continued to evolve into a massive subscription-based business.
Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, the software company recently announced results from its best third-quarter ever—revenue grew 14 per cent year over year, hitting a record USD 3.3 billion.
“Adobe has benefited from growth in its digital media segment, its largest division, in particular, with demand rising for its subscription-based suite of tools for designing and publishing content and software for document creation and electronic signatures,” Fortune said.
It added that Adobe’s diverse mix of customers, both large and small, has also helped Narayen to future-proof his company’s business.”Now the CEO has a strategy for what he hopes will result in even more growth: In early November, Adobe announced the USD 1.5 billion acquisition of Workfront, a maker of ‘marketing workflow management’ software,” it said.
Banga, who had been Mastercard’s CEO for 10 years, will step down from his role and Michael Miebach will be the new CEO effective January 1, 2021.