In YouTube's Neal Mohan, Silicon Valley Gets Yet Another India-Origin CEO

Neal Mohan has replaced Susan Wojcicki as the Chief Executive Officer of YouTube to become the latest to join the club of Indian-origin chief executives in the Silicon Valley.

Wojcicki is stepping down from the role after nine years running the video division of Google, marking the end of an era for one of the internet’s foundational businesses. She is handing the reins to her top lieutenant, Mohan, who is the chief product officer at YouTube and a veteran Google executive.

Wojcicki said in a blog post that she planned to “start a new chapter” focused on her family, health, and personal projects. She’ll also take on an advisory role, working across Google and its parent, Alphabet Inc.

“The time is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team in place at YouTube,” Wojcicki wrote.

Enter Mohan.

A graduate of Stanford University, Mohan joined Google in 2007 when the Mountain View, California-based firm acquired DoubleClick—an ad services platform that has since become the bedrock of Alphabet Inc.'s revenue along with YouTube. The deal was orchestrated by Wojcicki, a key architect of Google's online advertising business. It was in her parents' garage that Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998.

From 2008 to 2015, Mohan led Google's display and video advertising businesses on YouTube, AdSense, and DoubleClick—now known as the Google Marketing Platform.

YouTube Days

Wojcicki, who took charge of YouTube in 2014, brought Mohan on board as chief product officer in 2015.

Together, they built YouTube into what it is today—a video-streaming behemoth that has a robust subscription model for users and content creators alike. He was a key part of the launch of products like YouTube Music, YouTube Premium, and YouTube Shorts. He also made sure that the platform's policies and community rules were followed.

He also sits on the boards of Stitch Fix and 23andMe.

"He has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees," Wojcicki wrote in a note to employees announcing her resignation. "Neal will be a terrific leader for YouTube."