Neal Mohan named new YouTube CEO
YOUTUBE CEO Susan Wojcicki on Thursday (16) announced that she is stepping down from her role after spending nine years as the head of the global online video-sharing platform.
She will be replaced by her longtime Indian-American lieutenant Neal Mohan.
Wojcicki, 54, said in her blog post that she will focus on ‘family, health, and personal projects I'm passionate about.' Previously a senior vice president for ad products at Google, she became CEO of YouTube in 2014.
‘Today, after nearly 25 years here, I've decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube,' Wojcicki wrote in an email to YouTube employees.
‘The time is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team in place at YouTube,' she said.
‘When I joined YouTube nine years ago, one of my first priorities was bringing in an incredible leadership team. Neal Mohan was one of those leaders, and he'll be the SVP and new head of YouTube,' Wojcicki wrote announcing her replacement.
Mohan joined Google with the DoubleClick acquisition in 2007. He became YouTube's chief product officer in 2015.
‘Since then, he has set up a top-notch product and UX team, played pivotal roles in the launch of some of our biggest products, including YouTube TV, YouTube Music and Premium and Shorts, and has led our Trust and
Safety team, ensuring that YouTube lives up to its responsibility as a global platform,' she said.
Mohan is a graduate in electric engineering from Stanford University and holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
‘He has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees,' she said, adding that he will be a ‘terrific leader' for YouTube.
Wojcicki would now assume an advisory role at Google and its parent Alphabet. Under her leadership, ad revenue of YouTube jumped to $28.8 billion last year.
Born in Lucknow, India, Mohan, 47, grew up in Michigan and Florida.
Before joining YouTube, Mohan served as senior vice-president of display and video ads at Google. Prior to that, he was the senior vice-president of strategy and product development at the internet ad-serving services company DoubleClick.