RSSAdobe promotes former Macromedia leader to CTO post
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published February 5, 2008, 5:52 PM
In an announcement late Tuesday, Adobe said it is promoting its current senior vice president and chief software architect, Kevin Lynch, to what appears to be a new post with higher level of seniority.
Kevin Lynch was the Chief Software Architect of Adobe Systems, having joined the company through its 2005 acquisition of Macromedia, where he was seen as the co-creator of the Dreamweaver Web site development environment. Now it appears he'll be taking on new responsibilities there.
A cryptically worded statement from Adobe late this afternoon appears to indicate Lynch -- who on previous occasions had actually been introduced as the company's CTO anyway -- will now oversee more than just Flash, Flex, AIR, and the business units he helped develop at Macromedia. BetaNews has asked Adobe's representatives for further comment, which may be forthcoming.
What is not yet clear is how, or if, the move will shake up the corporate structure. Up until this afternoon, Adobe had 13 executives who sat at the Senior Vice President level, with six of those having purview over some element of technology, and with one of those SVPs -- specifically John Brennan -- holding the same title as SVP of the Platform Business Unit as did Lynch. If this is a traditional promotion in which the CTO post is effectively created, the other five technological SVPs could report to Lynch, and Lynch would then report directly to President and CEO Shantanu Narayen.
Just last week, when Adobe advanced its PDF 1.7 specification to the ISO for consideration as a full international standard, it was Lynch who was chosen to speak on behalf of his company. "As governments and organizations increasingly request open formats, maintenance of the PDF specification by an external and participatory organization will help continue to drive innovation and expand the rich PDF ecosystem that has evolved over the past 15 years," read Lynch's statement at the time.
Besides that instance, however, Lynch has kept a relatively low executive profile, except at conferences where he's known to engage audiences with his informal, personable style.
9:30 pm ET February 5, 2008 - Tuesday evening, an Adobe Systems spokesperson confirmed to BetaNews that Adobe's new CTO Kevin Lynch will report directly to president and CEO Shantanu Narayen.
In addition, the spokesperson added, "As CTO, Kevin will head a new organization called the Experience & Technology Group, which includes experience design and core technology as well as the Platform Business Unit."
I hope they consider the experience of users being fed up with having 1/2 their PC resources spent on loading up a PDF reader...
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