Charles (Chuck) Geschke co-founded Adobe Systems in 1982 with John Warnock.  A respected and inspiring leader in the software industry for more than 25 years, Geschke retired from his position as president of Adobe in 2000 and continues to share chairmanship of the board with Warnock. 

Geschke joined Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the early 1970s as a research scientist in their Computer Sciences Laboratory where he worked on programming language design and machine architecture, including the “Mesa” language which was the basis for the Xerox Star workstation.

In 1978, Geschke formed the Imaging Sciences Laboratory at PARC where he directed research activities in the fields of computer science, graphics, image processing, and optics.  He hired his long-term research partner, John Warnock, and the pair invented a Page Description Language (PDL) called Interpress.  When Xerox decided not to commercialize this invention, Geschke and Warnock left PARC and co-founded Adobe Systems.

Adobe has become a powerhouse in electronic imaging through both acquisitions and internal development projects, and is the industry leader in most graphic arts software, especially their PhotoShop and Illustrator programs.  As of December 2005, Adobe acquired Macromedia to create one of the world's largest, most innovative and diversified software companies. The acquisition accelerates Adobe's strategic initiative to advance a powerful software platform, based on PDF and Macromedia® Flash® technologies that scale from mobile devices to high-end servers.

Dr. Geschke remains true to the ideals of a Jesuit education.  He holds an A.B. in classics and an M.S. in mathematics from Xavier University and a doctorate in computer science from Carnegie-Mellon University.  He has served on the faculty of John Carroll University in Cleveland and is currently the Chair of the Board of Trustees at the University of San Francisco, both Jesuit universities.