YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said she is “stepping back” from her leadership role at the company after nearly a decade of running the video-sharing platform. Succeeding her will be Neal Mohan, YouTube’s current chief product officer.
YouTube Chief Executive and one of the first Google employees, Susan Wojcicki, is stepping down from her role in the tech giant that started in her garage 25 years ago, she said in a personal update posted on the video-sharing platform on Thursday.
Wojcicki will be replaced by insider Neal Mohan. The change of guard comes as YouTube is vying for viewing time with popular short-form video app TikTok and streaming services like Netflix.
One of the most prominent women in tech, Wojcicki, 54, said she will focus on “family, health, and personal projects”. She was previously senior vice president for ad products at Google and became the CEO of YouTube in 2014.
Mohan, a Stanford graduate, joined Google in 2008 and is the chief product officer at YouTube, where he has been focusing on building YouTube Shorts and Music.
Mohan has also worked with Microsoft and sits on the board of Stitch Fix and genomics and biotechnology company 23andMe.
Alphabet shares were barely changed for the day, down less than 1 per cent after the news.
You may recall that it was reported in 2015 that, Alphabet Inc.’s Google has kept top advertising executive Neal Mohan from jumping ship by re-uniting him with fellow company ad veteran Susan Wojcicki at YouTube, its online video business.
Ms. Wojcicki took to Twitter on Wednesday to welcome Mr. Mohan to YouTube as head of product and design.
The appointment shows that Google can hold on to top executives when the company wants to. Several years ago, Mr. Mohan fielded a job offer from Twitter Inc. and earlier this year nearly left for online-storage startup Dropbox Inc., according to technology website Recode.
Mr. Mohan’s move to YouTube also signals a bigger push to get big brands and ad agencies buying more ads on the online video service, rather than on traditional TV.
Mr. Mohan oversaw strategy and product management at Google’s display-ad business DoubleClick for several years and then took on mobile advertising as well. Mr. Mohan worked closely with Ms. Wojcicki in these roles and was a big proponent of luring big-spending brands and agencies online with familiar ad-measurement tools.
YouTube is the dominant online video service and is growing fast in terms of viewers, but profitability has been elusive. When Ms. Wojcicki took the helm in early 2014, it was a sign that Google was trying harder to make money from the business.
Mr. Mohan will report to Ms. Wojcicki and lead all product teams at YouTube, including the new YouTube Gaming service and advertising.
The move brings YouTube’s management structure into line with other Google businesses, which typically have a product head and an engineering leader. Since Ms. Wojcicki became YouTube CEO, the business has lacked a product chief until now.
