Indian-American Neal Mohan turns into YouTube CEO, Susan Wojcicki steps down

The CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, is stepping down after 9 years of main the most important video platform on this planet. She will probably be changed by Neal Mohan, who has served as her lieutenant for a while.

For Google, which acquired the web site in 2006, and Alphabet, the holding firm that homes each of them, YouTube grew in significance to the corporate’s operations throughout her tenure: Nearly 10% of Alphabet’s whole income ($29,2 billion) in 2022 got here from YouTube’s advert revenues.

The resignation of Wojcicki additionally carries vital symbolic for Google and know-how typically. She has lengthy been one of many extremely few ladies operating a major tech firm. She additionally performed a vital position within the founding of Google; in 1998, she famously rented out her Silicon Valley storage to co-founders Larry Web page and Sergey Brin, and a yr later, she turned the corporate’s sixteenth worker.

Wojcicki started her profession at Google managing advertising and marketing. She later assisted within the growth of the corporate’s internet advertising division and oversaw its try to compete with YouTube by operating its video service. Ultimately, she argued that Google ought to accumulate the web site.

She made it a precedence to make YouTube extra approachable to advertisers throughout her time in command of the platform, all of the whereas making an attempt to manage the huge and unruly neighborhood of video producers that offered the location with its content material.

Her successor, Mohan, and Wojcicki have collaborated carefully for years. Since 2015, Mohan has been Wojcicki’s No. 2 at YouTube. The 2 of them first collaborated on growing Google’s show promoting enterprise.

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet, mentioned in an announcement that Susan had “created an incredible group and has in Neal a successor who is able to leap in and lead YouTube via its subsequent decade of success.”

Neal Mohan: Who’s he?

Since 2015, Neal Mohan has been YouTube’s chief product officer. Earlier to this, Mohan was employed by the dominant web search firm Google, which he had joined in 2008.

Neal Mohan, 49, graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in electrical engineering from Stanford College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate Faculty of Enterprise. He was a recipient of the Arjay Miller Scholarship, which is given to college students within the prime 10 % of their class with the best grade level averages (GPA).

He as soon as acquired a job provide as Twitter’s Chief Product Officer, however Google spent about $100 million to maintain him there, in accordance with a 2013 Enterprise Insider article. A former boss who labored with him additionally mentioned that he was a “distinctive” mixture of “an ‘insatiable techie’ however but had the industrial sense” to interact with purchasers strategically.

Indian-born CEOs Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Shantanu Narayen of Adobe, and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet are amongst these in command of different main world tech corporations. Mohan is one in every of them. Indian-origin CEOs have lately led a number of venerable US companies, like Raj Subramaniam, the CEO of Starbucks, and Laxman Narasimhan, who will take over the helm of the espresso firm.

From 2008 till 2015, Mohan served as Google’s vp of show and video promoting, overseeing the corporate’s promoting merchandise on YouTube, the Google Show Community, AdSense, AdMob, and the DoubleClick advert tech merchandise. Moreover, he created advertising- and media-partner options that aided within the growth of the buyer web, the ecosystem for cell apps, and the web media sector.

“Working with Neal has taken up practically 15 years of my skilled life; we first met when DoubleClick was acquired by Google in 2007 and once more as his place rose to grow to be SVP of Show and Video Promoting. He was appointed Chief Product Officer of YouTube in 2015. Since then, he has established a top-notch product and UX group, performed essential roles within the launch of a few of our greatest merchandise, together with YouTube TV, YouTube Music, Premium, and Shorts, and has led our Belief and Security group, making certain that YouTube lives as much as its popularity for being a protected platform “In her letter, Wojcicki acknowledged.

How did he get right here?

Mohan, a Stanford alum, has expertise working for Microsoft as a supervisor in company technique. Mohan labored at DoubleClick earlier than becoming a member of Google, an internet promoting agency that Google purchased in 2007.

The invention of quite a few of Google’s promoting merchandise, together with AdWords, AdSense, and DoubleClick, has been credited to Mohan, who is thought for his experience in digital promoting and has additionally performed a major affect in its growth.

Following the announcement, Mohan tweeted, “Thanks, @SusanWojcicki. Over time, working with you has been unimaginable. You’ve reworked YouTube right into a exceptional hub for customers and artists. I’m keen to hold out this improbable and essential obligation. I’m wanting ahead to what’s arising.