YouTube chief executive officer Susan Wojcicki, one of Google’s first employees and amomng the most prominent women in technology, has announced that she will be stepping down after nine years at the helm of the world’s largest online video platform.
In a letter addressed to YouTube employees, Wojcicki wrote: “Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.”
Neal Mohan, who has worked closely with Wojcicki for many years and has worked under her at YouTube since 2015, will be taking the reins at the Alphabet-owned video platform.
Mohan first joined Google in 2007 with the DoubleClick Acquisition and eventually rose to become senior vice president of Display and Video Ads. He was elevated to YouTube chief Product Officer in 2015 and has led YouTube’s Trust and Safety team.
Referring to Mohan, she commented: “The time is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team in place at YouTube. 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. I’ve spent nearly 15 years of my career working with Neal, first when he came over to Google with the DoubleClick acquisition in 2007 and as his role grew to become SVP of Display and Video Ads. He became YouTube’s chief product officer in 2015. Since then, he has set up a top-notch product and UX team, played pivotal roles in the launch of some of our biggest products, including YouTube TV, YouTube Music and Premium and Shorts, and has led our Trust and Safety team, ensuring that YouTube lives up to its responsibility as a global platform. He has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees. Neal will be a terrific leader for YouTube.”
Mohan will join a growing list of Indian-origin CEOs at the helm of US-based global giants, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.
Wojcicki was the one who rented her garage to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to start the company and eventually became an employee of Google a year later becoming Google’s employee No. 16.
Her first role was as Google’s first marketing manager in 1999, and in 2003 she became Google AdSense’s first product manager.
Wojcicki is credited with the idea to buy YouTube in 2006 and managed that $1.65 billion acquisition as well as the $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick the next year. By 2014 she was CEO of the video site.
Wojcicki gained control of YouTube when it was already a household name, and one of the top three websites in the world after Google and Facebook. Starting in 2015, she expanded the service to multiple vertical content apps, which saw the launch of the ad-free YouTube Premium, in-house “YouTube Originals” content, YouTube Music, YouTube Gaming, and YouTube Kids.
The cable TV replacement service YouTube TV launched in 2017, the Snapchat clone YouTube Stories launched in 2018, and the TikTok clone YouTube Shorts launched in 2021.
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“Susan has a unique place in Google History and has made the most incredible contribution to products used by people everywhere […] We’re so grateful for all she’s done over the last 25 years,” Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin said in a statement.
Wojcicki will be around for “the short term” to help with the transition. While she eventually won’t have a day-to-day role at Google, Wojcicki mentioned in her blog that she will be supporting Mohan through the transition. Over the long term, she “agreed with Sundar to take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet” where she will offer guidance and counselling across Google’s businesses.
