Meet Neal Mohan, the Lucknow boy set to become YouTube's new CEO

Indian-American Neal Mohan is set to become YouTube's new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) after long-time head Susan Wojcicki on Thursday announced that she is stepping down from her role.

With his takeover as YouTube CEO, Mohan joins the long list of Indian-origin CEOs of global tech giants including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Vimeo CEO Anjali Sood, Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan among several others.

Wojcicki, who helmed the global online video-sharing and social media platform for nine years, said, "Today, after nearly 25 years at @Google, I’m stepping back to start a new chapter. I'm inspired every day by creators around the world who bring people together on @YouTube. It's been an honor to have a front row seat to this incredible community," she tweeted, linking a long blog-post on YouTube where she describes her nine-year-long journey with the platform.

"It's been amazing to work with you over the years. You've built YouTube into an extraordinary home for creators and viewers. I'm excited to continue this awesome and important mission. Looking forward to what lies ahead..." said Mohan.

Mohan (49) served as the Chief Product Officer (CPO) at YouTube since 2015 prior to this. He was primarily involved with YouTube Shorts and Music.

Originally hailing from Lucknow, India, Mohan's father migrated to the United States to pursue his PhD at Purdue University.

Like Google's co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Mohan is also a Standford Graduate, where he obtained an MBA in Electrical Engineering.

He joined Google in 2008 and served nearly eight years as Senior Vice President of display and video advertising at Google. Besides that, he also built solutions for advertisers and media partners that enabled the growth of the consumer internet, mobile app ecosystem and online media industry.

Mohan moved to YouTube as the CPO in 2015, and played a pivotal role in launching YouTube's biggest products including its subscription service 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.

"Since 2015, he [Mohan] 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," said Susan about Mohan's role at YouTube so far.

Mohan had also worked with Microsoft and is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent US think tank.