Indian-American Neal Mohan Becomes YouTube CEO

Neal Mohan is being appointed as YouTube CEO by succeeding Susan Wojcicki. He was about to join Twitter in 2011 but Google paid him $100 million to stay.

Neal Mohan, the new CEO of YouTube, is a powerful person in the internet sector who is renowned for his understated manner and ability to accomplish tasks behind the scenes. 

Even though Mohan’s work at Google and YouTube is well known, there is a lesser-known story that might have had a significant impact on Twitter, Google, and YouTube.

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Start at the beginning. Mohan had a brief stint at Andersen Consulting following his 1996 Stanford electrical engineering graduation (Accenture). 

He joined a start-up company named Net Gravity in 1997 that supplied business software to online marketers.

By the end of 1997, a bigger Internet advertising firm by the name of DoubleClick purchased NetGravity. During his tenure at the business, he got to know David Rosenblatt, an executive at the time.

In five years, Mohan’s responsibilities at DoubleClick grew from services to sales operations to Vice President, Business Operations.

After working at DoubleClick for a few fruitful years, Mohan took a professional hiatus in 2003 and returned to Stanford University to finish his MBA.

DoubleClick was experiencing serious financial concerns at the same time. Rosenblatt took over as DoubleClick’s CEO in 2004 and managed the business out of its predicament. 

Soon after Mohan received his MBA, Rosenblatt contacted him regarding his product knowledge.

Mohan turned down job offers from Google and other tech firms at the time in favor of returning to DoubleClick as their head of products. A strategy and road map for DoubleClick were developed jointly by Mohan and Rosenblatt.

However, Mohan did eventually land a job with Google after the internet giant acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in 2007. At Google, he and his team succeeded.

Since 2007, Mohan has played a significant role at Google. He contributed significantly to the creation of the platform’s advertising solutions and increased YouTube’s revenue. He managed all of YouTube’s product innovation and development as its chief product officer.

In Silicon Valley, Mohan was well-known for his product and strategy knowledge. In 2011, Twitter was searching for a new product team manager. 

Top candidates for the role included Mohan, who Twitter was thought to be in early talks with regarding replacing as chief product officer. Google, though, was not going down without a fight.

TechCrunch stated in 2011 that Google had paid Mohan over $100 million to keep him on staff and keep him from defecting to Twitter. 

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According to reports, Mohan received a $100 million bonus in the form of shares and it was a requirement that he remain at Google for a specific amount of time. 

The payment was evidence of the value Google ascribed to Mohan’s position inside the organization as well as the fierce rivalry for top personnel in the tech sector.

Although $100 million is a remarkable sum of money, top executives in the technology sector frequently receive huge compensation packages.

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