Adobe platform executive bolts for private equity firm

John Brennan

(Credit: Adobe Systems)

John Brennan, a senior vice president of Adobe's Platform group, has left the company to join the middle-market effort of private-equity firm Silver Lake, called Silver Lake Sumeru.

An important executive in Adobe's merger with Macromedia, Brennan had led Adobe's Creative Suite product group, as well as development of platform technologies such as Flash, PDF (Portable Document Format), and AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime).

Silver Lake Sumeru on Thursday said Brennan will work with the firm to improve performance of "established middle-market technology companies."

One of the most prominent private-equity firms, Silver Lake has attracted other IT executives including former Sun Microsystems President Ed Zander, who later was CEO of Motorola.