Adobe CEO among Forbes toppers

BANGALORE, I(NDIA: Indian origin businessman and publishing software giant Adobe’s President and Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen has made into the club of young CEOs with fattest pay package in the U.S., according to a list released by Forbes.

Outsourcing major Cognizant’s Francisco D’Souza is the other Indian who found a place in the list.

While Shantanu has been ranked fifth in the list compiled by the U.S. business magazine, D’Souza is at the 15th position in a list of 15 young CEOs, aged 45 or less.

The topper in the list is Nabeel Gareeb, a person of Pakistani origin, who is the CEO of chipmaker MEMC Electronic Materials.

According to the list published in the online edition of Forbes, Gareeb gets an annual pay package of $79.6 million, while that of Narayen is $12 million. And D’Souza’s annual package has been put at $3.7 million.

Jen-Hsun Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, is at the second place with $45.9 million and SL Green CEO Marc Holliday came third with $30 million. Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems is at the fourth place with an annual package of $13.5 million, Forbes said.

Narayen, who joined Adobe in January 1998 as vice president and general manager of our engineering technology group, was soon promoted to senior vice president, worldwide products. In March 2001 he became the executive vice president, worldwide product marketing and development and in January 2005, he was promoted to president and chief operating officer.

It was in December 2007 that he became the CEO of Adobe and also joined its Board of Directors.

The Forbes’ report noted that “young chief executives are becoming an endangered species”, as the number of CEOs aged 45 or less at the 500 largest listed companies in the U.S. has dropped by more than half. While 60 young CEO’s were listed in 2000, it has dipped to 28 now, it said.