Neal Mohan

Neal Mohan
Born	14 7, 1973
Birthplace	Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Business executive
Title	CEO of YouTube (2023–present)
Known for	CEO of YouTube
Education	Stanford University (BS, MBA)
Awards	TIME CEO of the Year (2025)
Website	[[blog.youtube blog.youtube] Official site]

Neal Mohan (born July 14, 1973) is an American business executive serving as the chief executive officer of YouTube, the online video sharing and social media platform owned by Alphabet Inc. He assumed the role in February 2023, succeeding Susan Wojcicki, who had led YouTube since 2014. Born in Lafayette, Indiana, Mohan spent portions of his childhood in the United States and India before attending Stanford University, where he earned degrees in electrical engineering and business administration. His career in digital advertising began in the late 1990s at a startup called NetGravity, which was later acquired by DoubleClick. When Google purchased DoubleClick in 2007, Mohan joined Google and eventually rose to become one of the company's most valued executives. At YouTube, he served as chief product officer before being elevated to the top position. Under his leadership, YouTube has expanded its presence in connected television, short-form video, creator monetization, and artificial intelligence–driven content tools. In December 2025, TIME named Mohan its CEO of the Year for 2025, citing his stewardship of YouTube's growth as a dominant force in television and digital video.

Early life

Neal Mohan was born on July 14, 1973, in Lafayette, Indiana. He is of Indian descent and holds American nationality. He spent most of his early childhood growing up in the United States before his family moved to India in 1985. Mohan spent several years in India during his adolescence before returning to the United States in 1992 to pursue higher education.

The experience of growing up across two countries provided Mohan with a cross-cultural perspective. Reports have noted that his upbringing in both the United States and India informed his later approach to building global technology products.

Education

Mohan enrolled at Stanford University after returning to the United States in 1992. He studied electrical engineering and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1996. He later returned to Stanford to pursue a Master of Business Administration (MBA), beginning the program around 2003. Stanford's location in the heart of Silicon Valley placed Mohan at the center of the technology industry during a period of rapid growth in internet-based businesses.

Career

Early career and NetGravity

After completing his undergraduate degree at Stanford in 1996, Mohan began his professional career at Accenture, the global management consulting and professional services firm. He subsequently left Accenture to join NetGravity, a startup company focused on online advertising technology. NetGravity was among the early companies building tools to manage and serve advertisements on the internet during the late 1990s dot-com era. Mohan became a prominent figure within the company and gained experience in the nascent field of digital advertising infrastructure.

In 1997, NetGravity was acquired by DoubleClick, a larger digital advertising company that was becoming a major player in the online ad industry. DoubleClick itself had acquired another company, Abacus Direct, in 1999, a merger that later created significant complications for the firm due to privacy concerns and regulatory scrutiny surrounding the combination of online tracking data with offline consumer databases. The fallout from the Abacus Direct acquisition eventually led to the merger being effectively unwound, causing upheaval within DoubleClick's leadership and operations.

DoubleClick

After completing his MBA at Stanford, Mohan was recruited back to DoubleClick in 2005 by David Rosenblatt, who had become the company's new CEO in the wake of the organizational restructuring that followed the Abacus Direct controversy. Mohan and Rosenblatt worked together to reorient DoubleClick's strategy, devising a plan that focused the company on its core ad-serving technology business. This strategic plan was later described as having a lasting influence on Google's advertising operations after the subsequent acquisition.

Mohan's work at DoubleClick positioned him as an authority in programmatic advertising and ad technology, fields that would become central to the business models of major internet platforms in the following decade.

Google

In 2007, Google acquired DoubleClick in a deal that brought Mohan and other DoubleClick executives into the Google organization. The DoubleClick acquisition was a significant strategic move for Google, largely oriented by Google executive Susan Wojcicki, who at the time oversaw the company's advertising products. The deal strengthened Google's position in display advertising and provided the infrastructure that would underpin much of the company's ad technology for years to come.

At Google, Mohan rose through the ranks to become one of the company's most valued employees. A 2013 Business Insider report described him as "Google's $100 million man," referencing reports that Google had offered him a substantial compensation package — reportedly in the range of $100 million in stock — to prevent him from leaving for Twitter, which had been aggressively trying to recruit him. The size of the reported retention package underscored how central Mohan had become to Google's advertising business and its broader product strategy.

Mohan and Wojcicki developed a close professional relationship during this period, working together extensively for approximately fifteen years across Google and YouTube. Their collaboration began during the DoubleClick integration and continued as both executives took on increasingly prominent roles within the Alphabet corporate structure.

YouTube: Chief Product Officer

In 2015, Mohan transitioned to YouTube, which Wojcicki had been leading as CEO since 2014, to serve as the platform's chief product officer (CPO). In this role, Mohan oversaw YouTube's product development and was responsible for many of the platform's major strategic initiatives during the late 2010s and early 2020s.

Under Mohan's product leadership, YouTube launched and expanded several significant products and features. These included YouTube TV, the platform's live television streaming service; YouTube Music, a dedicated music streaming service; YouTube Premium, a subscription tier offering ad-free viewing and exclusive content; and YouTube Shorts, the platform's short-form video feature designed to compete with TikTok.

The launch of YouTube Shorts in particular represented a major strategic pivot for the platform, as short-form vertical video had become the dominant format on competing platforms. Mohan discussed YouTube's product strategy in a February 2022 interview with The Verge, addressing the platform's approach to features including potential integrations with emerging technologies such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse.

As CPO, Mohan also played a role in shaping YouTube's content moderation policies and its approach to balancing openness with responsibility — challenges that became increasingly prominent as the platform faced scrutiny over misinformation, harmful content, and its recommendation algorithms.

YouTube: Chief Executive Officer

On February 16, 2023, Susan Wojcicki announced that she was stepping down as CEO of YouTube, and that Mohan would succeed her in the role. In a blog post, Wojcicki described the transition as a natural progression, noting her long working relationship with Mohan. The announcement made Mohan one of the most prominent Indian-American executives in the technology industry, leading a platform with billions of users worldwide.

Upon assuming the CEO role, Mohan inherited a platform that had become one of the largest media properties in the world but also faced significant competitive pressures from short-form video rivals, evolving advertiser demands, and regulatory scrutiny in multiple countries. His tenure has been marked by a focus on several strategic priorities.

Connected television and living room viewing

One of Mohan's central strategic themes as CEO has been YouTube's expansion into connected television. Under his leadership, YouTube has positioned itself as a competitor not only to other digital video platforms but also to traditional television networks and streaming services. In his 2026 annual letter, Mohan outlined YouTube's continued push into the living room, describing the platform's ambitions to reinvent the television viewing experience. TIME's recognition of Mohan as CEO of the Year specifically cited his role in leading YouTube "into a new era of TV and video domination."

Creator economy

Mohan has placed significant emphasis on YouTube's role as a platform for creators, framing the creator economy as central to the platform's identity and business model. In January 2026, he stated that creators are "the new stars and studios," arguing that YouTube creators are overtaking traditional Hollywood in terms of audience reach and cultural influence. In an interview with Stratechery in September 2025, Mohan discussed YouTube's strategy of "building a stage for creators," describing the platform's approach to providing tools, monetization options, and distribution infrastructure for independent content producers.

Artificial intelligence and content quality

During his tenure, Mohan has addressed the challenges posed by artificial intelligence to content platforms, including the proliferation of AI-generated low-quality content. In his 2026 annual letter, he outlined YouTube's approach to AI safeguards and transparency measures designed to combat what has been colloquially termed "AI slop" — low-quality, AI-generated content that can degrade the user experience. At the same time, Mohan has promoted the use of AI tools to assist creators in content production and to improve YouTube's recommendation systems.

Parental controls and safety

Mohan's 2026 priorities also included enhanced parental controls and safety features on the platform, reflecting ongoing public and regulatory concern about younger users' experiences on major social media and video platforms.

Personal life

Mohan is an Indian-American who was born in the United States, spent part of his youth in India, and returned to the U.S. for his education and career. He maintains a relatively private personal life. Publicly available reports have focused primarily on his professional career rather than his family or personal interests. He is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where YouTube and Google's parent company Alphabet are headquartered.

Recognition

In December 2025, TIME named Neal Mohan its CEO of the Year for 2025. The recognition cited his leadership of YouTube during a period of significant growth and transformation, particularly the platform's expansion into connected television and its increasing dominance in the broader video and media landscape. Variety covered the announcement, noting Mohan's role as chief of one of the world's largest media platforms.

Earlier in his career, Mohan attracted attention as one of the most valued executives at Google. The 2013 Business Insider report describing him as "Google's $100 million man" highlighted his perceived indispensability to the company's advertising business and brought him wider public recognition within the technology industry.

Mohan's appointment as YouTube CEO in 2023 also drew significant media coverage, with Indian and international media outlets noting his status as a prominent Indian-American technology executive. His rise to lead YouTube was covered by major news organizations including Reuters, The Verge, Fast Company, and the Times of India.

Legacy

Neal Mohan's career trajectory — from a startup in the early days of internet advertising, through the consolidation of the ad technology industry, to the leadership of one of the world's largest video platforms — mirrors the broader evolution of the digital media landscape over three decades. His early work at NetGravity and DoubleClick placed him at the center of the development of programmatic advertising, a field that became foundational to the business models of Google, Facebook, and other major internet companies.

At YouTube, Mohan's product leadership contributed to the platform's diversification beyond its original identity as a user-generated video site. The expansion into live television (YouTube TV), music streaming (YouTube Music), subscription services (YouTube Premium), and short-form video (YouTube Shorts) under his oversight as CPO represented a broadening of YouTube's competitive position across multiple segments of the media industry.

As CEO, Mohan has positioned YouTube as a central player in the shift from traditional linear television to on-demand and streaming video consumption. His emphasis on the creator economy reflects a broader industry trend in which individual content producers and independent media companies increasingly compete with established studios and networks for audience attention and advertising revenue.

YouTube itself has also entered the cultural heritage sphere during Mohan's tenure. In February 2026, the Victoria and Albert Museum acquired a reconstruction of the original YouTube watch page for its permanent collection, reflecting the platform's significance in the history of digital culture and media.