some of the world’s biggest tech firms are being led by Indian-origin people including Google, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe Inc., Chanel. Another name got added to the list on Thursday as YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced that she is stepping down, naming Neal Mohan as her replacement.
Indian-American Mohan, who will now be the SVP and new head of YouTube, has worked as the company’s chief product officer since 2015, and joined the company in 2007. Explaining why she picked Neal to lead the video-sharing platform, Wojcicki said, “Neal has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees and will be a terrific leader for the video sharing platform.”
Thanking Wojcicki, Mohan said, “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.”
Interesting Facts about the new YouTube CEO
Mohan holds a bachelor degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar – an award given to the top 10 per cent of the class with the highest GPA.
Before landing the top job at YouTube, he has worked at Google, Microsoft, among others. Mohan started his career at Accenture (then Andersen Consulting) in 1996 and then joined a startup called NetGravity that was later acquired by Internet advertising firm DoubleClick in 2002.
At Microsoft, Mohan did a 4-month internship at Microsoft. He became part of Google in March 2008 untill November 2015. During his tenure, he led Google’s Display and Video advertising business, was responsible for the company’s advertising product offerings on YouTube, the Google Display Network, AdSense, AdMob, and the DoubleClick ad tech products.
Neal has been YouTube’s Chief Product Officer since 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.
Other than this, he the Board of Directors of leading online personal styling service Stitch Fix’s in October 2020. He also serves on the board of genetic testing firm 23andme, co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, the sister of Susan Wojcicki and ex-wife of Sergey Brin.
