YouTube's Neal Mohan will take over as the new chief executive officer of the video streaming platform, after long-time CEO Susan Wojcicki stepped down following her nine-year stint on Thursday.
Mohan, a Stanford University graduate, joined Google after the DoubleClick acquisition in 2007. He went on to become the senior vice-president of Display and Video Ads and then YouTube's chief product officer in 2015.
Since then, he has set up a product and UX team, played pivotal roles in the launch of some of YouTube's biggest products, including YouTube TV, YouTube Music and Premium and Shorts. Mohan has also led the company's Trust and Safety team.
"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 said in a note to YouTube employees.
The outgoing CEO plans to support Mohan and help with the transition, which will include continuing to work with some YouTube teams, coaching team members, and meeting with creators. "In the longer term, I've agreed with Sundar to take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet. This will allow me to call on my different experiences over the years to offer counsel and guidance across Google and the portfolio of Alphabet companies," she said.
"With all we're doing across Shorts, streaming, and subscriptions, together with the promises of AI, YouTube's most exciting opportunities are ahead, and Neal is the right person to lead us," Wojcicki said.
Wojcicki has spent around 25 years at Google. She had rented her garage to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. "Twenty-five years ago I made the decision to join a couple of Stanford graduate students who were building a new search engine. Their names were Larry and Sergey. I saw the potential of what they were building, which was incredibly exciting, and although the company had only a few users and no revenue, I decided to join the team," she said.
"Over the years, I've worn many hats and done so many things: managed marketing, co-created Google Image Search, led Google's first Video and Book search, as well as early parts of AdSense's creation, worked on the YouTube and DoubleClick acquisitions, served as SVP of Ads, and for the last nine years, the CEO of YouTube," Wojcicki said, adding she decided to step back from her role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on her family, health, and personal projects.
