Neal Mohan
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Neal Mohan (born July 14, 1973) is an American businessman who has served as the
chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
of the
social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
and
online video sharing An online video platform (OVP) enables users to upload, convert, store, and play back video content on the Internet, often via a private server structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally upload video content vi ...
platform
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
since 2023, succeeding Susan Wojcicki. Mohan was born in
Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( ) is a city in and is the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Lafayette ...
. He spent most of his childhood growing up in the United States before moving to India with his family in 1985. In 1992, he moved back to the U.S. and attended
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. He majored in electrical engineering and graduated in 1996. Mohan started working at
Accenture Accenture plc is a global multinational professional services company originating in the United States and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, that specializes in information technology (IT) services and management consulting. It was founded in 1 ...
, before joining a startup called NetGravity. He swiftly became a prominent figure within the company. After returning to Stanford in 2003 to pursue his MBA, NetGravity's parent company,
DoubleClick DoubleClick Inc. was an American advertisement company that developed and provided Internet ad serving services from 1995 until its acquisition by Google in March 2008. DoubleClick offered technology products and services that were sold primaril ...
, which had acquired the company in 1997, began to undergo serious issues stemming from another 1999 acquisition of Abacus Direct; this ultimately led to the merger being effectively annulled. Mohan was enlisted by David Rosenblatt, who had become DoubleClick's new CEO in the wake of the split, to work at the company in 2005. Together, they reoriented the company, devising a plan said to still have an influence on
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
's operations. DoubleClick was acquired by Google in 2007, an acquisition largely oriented by Google executive Susan Wojcicki. She and Mohan extensively worked together for the next fifteen years. In 2015, Mohan became CPO of YouTube, which Wojcicki headed as CEO. Throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s, he spearheaded much of the company's ventures such as
YouTube TV YouTube TV is an American Pay television, subscription Over-the-top media service, over-the-top streaming television service operated by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, which in turn is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., who announced YouTube TV ...
,
YouTube Music YouTube Music is a music streaming service developed by the American video platform YouTube, a subsidiary of Google. The service is designed with an interface that allows users to simultaneously explore music audios and music videos from YouTu ...
,
YouTube Premium YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the American video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals ...
and
YouTube Shorts YouTube Shorts is the short-form section of the online video-sharing platform YouTube. YouTube Shorts are vertical videos that have a duration of up to 180 seconds, and has various features for user interaction. Videos were limited to 60 ...
. Upon Wojcicki's resignation in February 2023, he succeeded her as the CEO of YouTube.


Early life

Neal Mohan was born in
Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( ) is a city in and is the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Lafayette ...
, on July 14, 1973. His parents, Aditya Mohan and Deepa Mohan, were
Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...
from the city of
Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...
. Aditya Mohan moved to the United States in the early 1970s to pursue a
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in civil engineering. He was admitted to
Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...
. Mohan grew up in
Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...
. He moved to
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
in 1985, with his family, spending the next seven years completing high school at St. Francis' College, where he learned to speak
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
and
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
. At some point between 1991 and 1992, Mohan moved back to the United States. He attended
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, graduating in 1996 with a degree in
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
and with an MBA from the
Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective ...
in 2005 where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.


Career


Accenture and NetGravity

After graduation, Mohan worked at
Accenture Accenture plc is a global multinational professional services company originating in the United States and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, that specializes in information technology (IT) services and management consulting. It was founded in 1 ...
, then owned by
Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen LLP was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corpo ...
. In 1997, he joined a startup called NetGravity, becoming a key figure in the company's operations and greatly expanding its prominence.


DoubleClick

In 1997, NetGravity was acquired by
DoubleClick DoubleClick Inc. was an American advertisement company that developed and provided Internet ad serving services from 1995 until its acquisition by Google in March 2008. DoubleClick offered technology products and services that were sold primaril ...
. Mohan moved from California to the company's headquarters in New York. In the next several years, he gradually became more involved in central business affairs within the company, with DoubleClick relying on him for cutting costs in the wake of the burst of the
dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...
. He became the vice president of business operations. In 2003, he returned to Stanford to pursue his
MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...
. While he was at Stanford, DoubleClick began to face serious issues stemming from its acquisition from Abacus Direct in 1999. The merger was ''de facto'' annulled by
Hellman & Friedman Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F) is an American private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments. H&F has focused its efforts ...
, who acquired DoubleClick and split off Abacus Direct from it. Hellman & Friedman requested that longtime executive David Rosenblatt become CEO of DoubleClick in the wake of the company's partition. Rosenblatt accepted this offer and also enlisted Mohan after he acquired his MBA in 2005, under Mohan's conditions that he would stay in California. Together, Rosenblatt and Mohan devised a plan to orient DoubleClick towards being a company vested upon advertising exchange, core ad technology situations, and an extensive ad network. This plan was outlined in a 400-slide PowerPoint presentation, said by those who created or have seen it to still have influence on current business plans by Google. The plan was presented to the board of DoubleClick and Hellman & Friedman in December 2005, who approved it.


Google

On April 13, 2007, Google agreed to acquire DoubleClick for US$3.1 billion. Google executive Susan Wojcicki largely orchestrated this action. For the next 15 years, she worked extensively with Mohan, who formally joined Google in 2007, playing a key role in the integration process with DoubleClick. While at Google, Mohan managed the company's 2010 US$85 million acquisition of
Invite Media Invite Media is a display advertising and exchange bidding company that was acquired by Google on June 3, 2010 for $81 million. Prior to Google's acquisition, Invite Media partnered up with AlmondNet, a data aggregator and intellectual property li ...
. Before moving to YouTube, he was senior vice president of display and video ads at Google. In 2011, Rosenblatt, who was now a board member of
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
, attempted to hire Mohan as chief product officer. Though Mohan nearly accepted, Google paid him US$100 million to remain at the company. A former
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
senior executive also stated that he attempted to hire Mohan while he was at Google.


YouTube

Mohan joined YouTube (a Google subsidiary) in 2015 as Chief Product Officer. During his time at the company, he managed a number of its marquees throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s, including
YouTube Music YouTube Music is a music streaming service developed by the American video platform YouTube, a subsidiary of Google. The service is designed with an interface that allows users to simultaneously explore music audios and music videos from YouTu ...
,
YouTube TV YouTube TV is an American Pay television, subscription Over-the-top media service, over-the-top streaming television service operated by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, which in turn is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., who announced YouTube TV ...
,
YouTube Premium YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the American video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals ...
, and
YouTube Shorts YouTube Shorts is the short-form section of the online video-sharing platform YouTube. YouTube Shorts are vertical videos that have a duration of up to 180 seconds, and has various features for user interaction. Videos were limited to 60 ...
. Following September 2020, Mohan appeared before Congress and participated in a White House summit, during which he introduced a new content moderation policy for YouTube aimed at addressing violent extremist content on the platform. This policy expanded upon previous ones targeting groups such as ISIS, by prohibiting content that glorified violence or sought to recruit or fundraise for extremist organizations, regardless of whether the content was directly associated with a designated terrorist group. Concurrently, YouTube initiated a media literacy campaign to assist viewers, particularly younger ones, in recognizing manipulation techniques employed in the dissemination of misinformation. On February 16, 2023, Mohan was selected to succeed Susan Wojcicki as YouTube's CEO.


Other ventures

Mohan has also worked with
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
and sat on the boards of Stitch Fix and
23andMe 23andMe Holding Co. is an American personal genomics and biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California. It is best known for providing a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service in which customers provide a saliva testing, sali ...
.


Personal life

Mohan is married to Hema Sareen Mohan, who has worked in the non-profit and
public welfare Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance p ...
sectors for two decades. He married his wife while in New York during his time working for DoubleClick.


References


External links


Neal Mohan
on Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Mohan, Neal American chief executives American people of Indian Tamil descent Living people Businesspeople from Indiana 1973 births Stanford University School of Engineering alumni People from Lafayette, Indiana 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople Google people YouTube Directors of Starbucks