TIME's tribute frames him as a cultural architect shaping what billions consume every day.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan has been named TIME Magazine's 2025 CEO of the Year. Mohan, who took over the top role in 2023, has guided YouTube through a transformative era. TIME's tribute frames him as a cultural architect shaping what billions consume every day.
“Mohan is the farmer; what he cultivates will be what we eat,” the magazine said.
“YouTube provides the soil, and everyone comes and plants whatever nourishing or noxious plants they care to… In many ways, YouTube is creating the cultural diet that the globe is beginning to subsist on.”
Who Is Neal Mohan?
- Neal Mohan, 52, was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1973. In the mid-1980s, his Tamil parents moved to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, where he became fluent in Hindi and studied Sanskrit. He later compared Sanskrit's rules-based structure to computer programming.
- Mohan and his two brothers eventually returned to the United States for higher education. He earned his undergraduate degree and MBA from Stanford University. His brother Anuj died at age 30 in a swimming pool accident.
- Mohan started his career in consulting before joining the digital advertising startup NetGravity, which was later acquired by DoubleClick. He stayed with DoubleClick and helped lead its $3.1 billion sale to Google in 2007. He considered moving to Twitter but remained at Google after receiving a retention offer.
- The DoubleClick deal brought Mohan into close contact with Susan Wojcicki, who later became YouTube CEO. She recruited him to YouTube and worked closely with him for years. Wojcicki told Mohan about the cancer diagnosis that led to her death in August 2024. Mohan took on many of her responsibilities during her treatment and succeeded her as CEO in 2023.
- In 2021, US President Donald Trump and several others sued YouTube over the suspension of Trump's channel following the January 6 Capitol attack, saying it violated free-speech rights. The case continued even after YouTube reinstated the channel in 2023.
- Under Mohan's leadership, YouTube settled the lawsuit in September 2025 for $24.5 million without admitting wrongdoing. Of that amount, $22 million was directed to a nonprofit supporting a White House ballroom project, with the remainder going to other plaintiffs.
- Mohan has two daughters and a son with his wife, Hema Sareen Mohan.
Featured Video Of The Day
Vande Mataram, Macaulay And Mandir: Why Remembering Our Past Is Critical To Moving Forward? Sadhguru Answers
