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YouTube will have Neal Mohan as its new CEO, after long-time Chief Executive Susan Wojcicki stepped down on Thursday (February 16). It was in Wojcicki’s garage that Google, YouTube’s parent company, first began.
Her departure comes at a time when there is much excitement — and concern — about the role of AI chatbots like ChatGPT (now integrated with rival Microsoft’s Bing Search) in changing how the world might end up searching for information online. There is also stiff competition to YouTube from short-duration videos in the form of TikTok and Instagram Reels.
Addressing Wojcicki, Mohan said on Twitter, “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.”
Neal Mohan, a Stanford graduate, joined Google in 2008 and is the chief product officer at YouTube, involved with YouTube Shorts and Music. He has also worked with Microsoft and sits on the board of Stitch Fix, a personal styling company, and the genomics and biotechnology company 23andMe. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent US think tank.
After a four-year Bachelor of Science degree in which he studied Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, Mohan went on to enrol in the university’s Graduate School of Business for an MBA in the early 2000s.
For many years he was part of DoubleClick, an internet advertising company. With Google’s acquisition in 2007, he became a part of the tech giant, and later became senior vice president of Display and Video Ads. “He has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees. Neal will be a terrific leader for YouTube,” Wojcicki said.
Mohan has played a role in overseeing and launching YouTube’s other biggest products since he became chief product officer in 2015, Fast Company reported.
“The best analogy that comes to mind for me is really just thinking about YouTube as a stage,” he told Fast Company last year. Viewers need “the best views possible of the creators that they’re most excited about.”
According to a 2013 Business Insider report, he was once offered a Chief Product Officer position at Twitter, but Google spent close to $100 million to make him stay. It also had a former boss describe him as finding him to be a “rare” combination, “an ‘insatiable technologist’ who also had enough business savvy” to interact with customers on a strategic level.
Mohan, who is of Indian origin, is among other CEOs who are leading other global tech giants, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Indian-origin CEOs have also of late spearheaded other iconic US companies, such as Laxman Narasimhan who is set to take over the reins of coffee chain Starbucks, and Raj Subramaniam, the CEO of FedEx, one of the world’s biggest transportation services companies.
(With inputs from PTI, AP and Reuters)
