Adobe Systems former CEO Bruce Chizen is swiftly transferring the reins of power to newly appointed CEO Shantanu Narayen as they look ahead to the company's future, he said in New York on Wednesday.

Having recently announced on Monday he would step down as CEO, Shantanu Narayen, Adobe's current President and COO has replaced him as President and CEO. Speaking at the UBS Global Technology & Services Conference in New York, Chizen and Narayen were on a presentation platform together to discuss the transition and the future outlook for Adobe.

I didn't want to retire from Adobe at 60 years old. I wanted to step back and do something else, not knowing what next was. The question was when to retire, Chizen said.

During his seven years as CEO (and 14 years with the company), Chizen has overseen dramatic changes at Adobe, most significantly is its merger with Macromedia in 2005.

Chizen, 52, said that now was the ideal time to resign since the company is now doing extremely well. He is expected to serve on the company's Board of Directors until November 28, 2008 and as a strategic adviser through to the end of this year. Adobe said in September that its third-quarter profit more than doubled from last year - but investors sold off its stock, knocking it down nearly 6 percent.

I am one of the largest individual shareholders so I want Adobe to do well, financially also, he quipped.

The company has racked up double-digit earnings growth following the introduction of its media-authoring package, Creative Suite 3 in April this year.

Looking forward, Adobe's next important platform is the AIR, or Adobe Integrated Runtime, software that allows Web applications to run on desktop PCs. Narayen emphasized that the applications written for AIR and Flash will help Adobe expand its reach further into mobile devices, set-top boxes, and gaming machines.

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