Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Indian-origin Chief Executive Officer has been named TIME magazine’s 2025 CEO of the Year, with the coveted publication describing his leadership as central to the platform’s growing influence on global culture.
What TIME Magazine Wrote About Neal Mohan
In its profile, TIME described Mohan’s role at YouTube to that of a cultivator shaping the world’s digital consumption habits.
“In many ways YouTube is creating the cultural diet that the globe is beginning to subsist on. Mohan is the farmer; what he cultivates will be what we eat,” the magazine wrote.
The publication described the platform as an ecosystem where users constantly shape the global content landscape.
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“YouTube provides the soil, and everyone comes and plants whatever nourishing or noxious plants they care to. As the garden takes over more of the planet… whatever grows there becomes what everyone consumes, because it’s what’s available, and often what’s free,” it added.
Neal Mohan’s Leadership At YouTube Hailed
Despite heading what TIME called “the world’s most powerful distraction,” Mohan is portrayed as calm and understated.
“He’s quiet-spoken, deliberative, hard to ruffle. He likes watching sports, going to his daughters’ dance recitals, and open white shirts, just normal stuff… If you ask him to be in your YouTube video, he’ll probably do it. He won’t be great in it, but neither will he be horrible,” the profile said.
TIME noted that Mohan remains deeply focused on the company he leads, “The entire dynamics of the entire media industry are changing before our eyes… It’s incredibly disruptive, and if you don’t adapt, you can be left by the wayside,” Mohan said.
Neal Mohan’s Early Life
Mohan became YouTube CEO in 2023, succeeding Susan Wojcicki. Born in Indiana, he spent most of his childhood in the United States before moving to Lucknow in 1985 at the age of 12. Reflecting on his school years, he recalled learning Sanskrit, “It’s incredibly phonetic and rules-oriented… It was like learning computer programming, basically.”
TIME highlighted that one of Mohan’s defining values is ensuring that people “get heard.”
Neal Mohan: Education, Early Career
The 49-year-old holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, an honour awarded to the top 10% of the class with the highest GPAs.
Mohan began his career at Accenture (then Andersen Consulting) in 1996. He later joined the startup NetGravity, which was acquired by DoubleClick in 2002.
After completing his two-year MBA (2003–2005) and a brief period at Microsoft, he returned to DoubleClick. There, he helped facilitate the company’s $3.1-billion acquisition by Google in April 2007.
Rise at Google: How Neal Mohan Built the Company’s Ad Tech Ecosystem
At Google, Mohan led the display and video advertising business from 2008 to 2015. His work spanned key products, including:
YouTube’s advertising platforms
Google Display Network
AdSense
AdMob
DoubleClick ad tech products
A Leader in Demand – How YouTube Rivals Try To Poach Neal Mohan
He also helped develop advertising solutions that supported the growth of the consumer internet and the mobile app ecosystem. Mohan played a major role in several strategic acquisitions, including Invite Media, Admeld, and Teracent, strengthening Google’s ad portfolio.
Several major companies attempted to recruit him over the years. TechCrunch reported that Twitter offered him a top product role in 2011, which he declined after receiving a $100 million stock grant from Google. Dropbox, too, tried and failed to bring him onboard.
Neal Mohan Net Worth
According to reports, Mohan earns around ₹3.1 crore per month, roughly ₹1 lakh per hour if counted without sleep. While his precise net worth remains undisclosed, reports suggest it includes luxury assets, significant stock holdings.
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
