Mr Chizen cited personal reasons for the voluntary step down from the board of directors. He will continue to serve on the board of Adobe until the spring of 2008 and in a strategic advisor capacity until the end of fiscal year 2008.

Mr Chizen previously served as the executive vice president of worldwide products and marketing and the vice president & general manager of the professional graphics division and Adobe System’s consumer division.

Before joining Adobe, Chizen had worked with Mattel Electronics’ merchandising group, Microsoft and Claris Corporation. Together Mr Chizen and Mr Narayen spearheaded the acquisition of Macromedia in 2005 for $3.4 billion.

Mr Narayen joined Adobe in 1998 as vice president and general manager of Adobe’s engineering technology group. He has been the president and chief operating officer of the company since 2005. Following a trajectory similar to Mr Chizen, he was the executive vice president of worldwide products. He held several management positions at Apple computer and Silicon Graphics before co-founding digital photo-sharing software company Pictra in 1996.

Adobe has issued its fourth quarter guidance expecting high results with a revenue target range of $860m-$890m. The company said it is targeting an annual revenue growth of about 13%.

Source: ComputerWire daily updates