Neal Mohan Replaces Susan Wojcicki: Meet the New YouTube CEO

Neal Mohan has been appointed as YouTube CEO replacing Susan Wojcicki, who had spent over 25 years at Google. Even though there is no official confirmation, Google’s parent Alphabet could have asked Susan to exit. It was in Susan’s family garage Google started its operations way back in 1999. In addition to serving as Chief Product Officer at YouTube, Neal also is part of Stitch Fix and 23andMe as Board of Directors. He is also currently part of Council on Foreign Relations as Member.

Today, after nearly 25 years at @Google, I’m stepping back to start a new chapter. I’m inspired every day by creators around the world who bring people together on @YouTube. It’s been an honor to have a front row seat to this incredible community. https://t.co/063sYalPzX

— Susan Wojcicki (@SusanWojcicki) February 16, 2023

Prior to being appointed as YouTube CEO, Neal served as YouTube’s chief product officer and was instrumental in user experience, trust and safety initatives. He along with Susan launched several products such as YouTube Red, YouTube Learning and much more. Mohan will now join the likes of Sundar Pichai (Google), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Arvind Krishna (IBM), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe), and much more. There are several Indians in Silicon valley as CEOs but they are not noticed by global media.

Mohan took the reins of YouTube from Susan Wojcicki. Wojcicki had rented her garage space to Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 and it’s from that place Google started its operations. It was a small house that was converted as a mini office at that time. Wojcicki joined as 16th employee with the search engine giant. No one in the world thought at that time that Google would become this much famous as we experience now.

Thank you, @SusanWojcicki. It’s been amazing to work with you over the years. You’ve built YouTube into an extraordinary home for creators and viewers. I’m excited to continue this awesome and important mission. Looking forward to what lies ahead… https://t.co/Rg5jXv1NGb

— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) February 16, 2023

On the education front, Neal Mohan earned his BS n electrical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was an Arjay Miller Scholar, which is an exclusive award given to top 10% of the class based on the highest GPA. He started his career at Accenture in 1996 and joined NetGravity, which was acquired by DoubleClick in 2002.

He then served with Microsoft and rejoined DoubleClick. He played a pivotal role in inking a major deal worth $3.3 billion sale to Google in April 2007. Mohan entered Google via Doubleclick deal and had served in the imaging and video advertising business, AdSense, AdMob, and much more. He struck deals with Invite Media, Admeld, and Teracent to boost Google’s advertising offerings.

When Susan took over as YouTube CEO in 2014, she tapped Mohan as her close confidant. Susan and Mohan worked together to create beautiful products not only for YouTube but also for creators and viewers.

With Neal taking over as CEO of YouTube, the road ahead is difficult for him. He will have to work with stakeholders to boost YouTube earnings. Moreover, he will have to launch new products including YouTube Learning as announced by the company in India. The service is currently available in the US but India is a big country to tap into learning now. YouTube Learning will be a big boost for emerging educators and learners. It will have to compete with the likes of Byjus, Unacademy, and much more. It remains to be seen whether Neal will integrate Google’s Bard AI with YouTube.