Who is Neal Mohan?
Neal Mohan (of Indian origin), a Stanford graduate, joined Google in 2008 and is the Chief Product Officer of YouTube, responsible for YouTube Shorts and Music. He has also worked with Microsoft and sits on the boards of Stitch Fix, a personal styling company, and 23andMe, a genomics and biotechnology company. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent American think tank.
A career in the early years
After a four-year Bachelor of Science degree in which he studied electrical engineering at Stanford University, Mohan enrolled 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 the acquisition of Google in 2007, he became part of the tech giant, and later became senior vice president of display and video ads. "He has an amazing understanding of our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees. Neil will be a fantastic leader for YouTube," said Wojcicki.
Role on youtube
Fast Company reports that Mohan has played a role in overseeing and launching some of YouTube's other biggest products since becoming chief product officer in 2015.
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"The best analogy that comes to mind for me is really just thinking of YouTube as a platform," he told Fast Company last year. Viewers "need the best possible ideas from creators they're most excited about."
According to a 2013 Business Insider report, he was once offered the position of chief product officer at Twitter, but Google spent nearly $100 million to retain him. It also included what a former boss described as a "rare" combination, "an 'insatiable technologist' who also had enough business savvy to interact with customers at a strategic level".
Mohan, who is of Indian origin, is among other CEOs leading global tech giants including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Indian-origin CEOs have recently led other prestigious US companies, such as Laxman Narasimhan, who is set to take over the reins of coffee chain Starbucks, and Raj, CEO of FedEx, one of the world's largest transportation services companies. Subramaniam.
Indian-origin Neil Mohan is taking over as YouTube chief from Susan Wojcicki, whose departure marked the end of an era at the Google-owned video-sharing platform.
Neil Mohan previously served as YouTube's Chief Product Officer, responsible for the platform's products, user experience, and trust and safety initiatives.
Neil Mohan, a longtime Indian American YouTube executive, is taking over as the head of the Google-owned video-sharing platform.
Additionally, Mohan will join an elite list of Indian-origin global tech leaders such as Google parent Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, IBM's Arvind Krishna, and Adobe's Shantanu Narayen.
Mohan takes over from Susan Wojcicki, whose departure marks the end of an era at the world's largest video platform. Wojcicki has a long history with Google (now Alphabet), having rented garage space in his parents' home to co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to start the company in 1998.
Previously, Mohan served as YouTube's chief product officer, responsible for the platform's products, user experience, and trust and safety initiatives.
Here are 10 things to know about the new head of YouTube:
1. Education: Neal Mohan, 49, has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arge Miller Scholar, an award given to the top 10 percent in the world. The class that has obtained the highest grade point average (GPA).
2. Early Roles: Neal Mohan began his career at Accenture (then Andersen Consulting) in 1996 and then joined a startup called NetGravity, which was later acquired by Internet advertising firm DoubleClick in 2002.
3. Joins Google via DoubleClick purchase: After his two-year MBA course (2003–2005) and a brief stint at Microsoft, Mohan rejoined DoubleClick and bought the company to Google in April 2007 for $3.1 billion. Played a key role in sales.
4. Leading Google's advertising product: At Google, Mohan led the firm's display and video advertising business, in which he has been responsible for advertising product offerings on YouTube, the Google Display Network, AdSense, AdMob, and DoubleClick advertising technology products since 2008. was responsible for As of 2015. He also created solutions for advertisers and media partners that enabled the growth of the consumer internet, mobile app ecosystem, and online media industry.
5. Acquisitions: Mohan has led several strategic startup acquisitions, including Invite Media, Admeld, and Terracent, to strengthen Google's advertising offerings.
6. Moving to YouTube: Susan Wojcicki, a key architect of Google's online advertising business, hired Mohan as her lieutenant when she took over as CEO of YouTube in 2014. He served as the Chief Product Officer of YouTube in 2015.
7. Launching new YouTube products: Mohan has been instrumental in launching some of YouTube's biggest products, including its subscription service YouTube Red, which was later rebranded as YouTube Premium; music streaming service YouTube Music, kids-oriented app YouTube Kids, live television streaming service YouTube TV and its short-form video service YouTube Shorts. He is also responsible for the service's mobile, desktop, and television apps as well as tools for media partners, content creators, musicians, governments, and consumer brands, among others.
8. Leading YouTube's policy functions: In addition, Mohan leads YouTube's trust and safety team, which oversees the creation and enforcement of platform policies and community guidelines governing the content available on the platform.
9. Rival Proposals: Over the years, several companies, including file storage company Dropbox, have tried unsuccessfully to hire him to lead their product work. According to TechCrunch, the most prominent was Twitter's offer in 2011, which Mohan declined following a lucrative stock grant of $100 million.
10. Board roles: Neil Mohan currently serves on the boards of companies such as personal styling service Stitch Fix and genetic testing firm 23andme, co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, sister of Susan Wojcicki and ex-wife of Sergey Brin. He has previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Internet Advertising Bureau (2012–2016) and the Mobile Marketing Association (2012–2015), in addition to being a member of the Board of Management for the Stanford Graduate School of Business (2013–2017).
