Susan Wojcicki is leaving as YouTube CEO; Chief Product Office Neel Mohan step by step

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced today that she is stepping down as CEO of YouTube, “to begin a new chapter focused on my family, health and personal projects.”

Neel Mohan, the company’s Chief Product Officer since 2015, will step into this role

There’s more to come, but here’s Wojcicki’s full note to staff sent out earlier today:

Hi YouTubers,

Twenty-five years ago I decided to join Stanford graduate students who were building a new search engine. Their names were Larry and Sergey. I saw the potential of what they were building, which was incredibly exciting, and even though the company only had a few users and no revenue, I decided to join the team.

It will be one of the best decisions of my life.

Over the years, I’ve worn many hats and done many things: managed marketing, co-created Google Image Search, led Google’s first video and book search, as well as early parts of creating AdSense, worked on the acquisition of YouTube and DoubleClick, as SVP of Advertising. Worked and for the past nine years, CEO of YouTube. I took on every challenge that came my way because it had a mission that benefited the lives of so many people around the world: finding information, telling stories and supporting creators, artists and small businesses. I am proud of what we have achieved. It has been exhilarating, meaningful and all-consuming.

Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to step down from my role as head of YouTube and start a new chapter with my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.

The timing is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team at YouTube. When I joined YouTube nine years ago, one of my first priorities was to bring in an incredible leadership team. Neil Mohan was one of those leaders, and will be the new SVP and head of YouTube. I’ve worked with Neil for about 15 years of my career, first when he came to Google with the acquisition of DoubleClick in 2007 and his role as SVP of Display and Video Advertising. In 2015, he became YouTube’s Chief Product Officer. Since then, he’s built a leading product and UX team, played a key role in some of our biggest product launches, including YouTube TV, YouTube Music and Premium and Shorts, and led our Trust and Safety team, ensuring YouTube lives up to its responsibilities as a global platform. gave He has a great feel for our product, our business, our creator and user community, and our employees. Neil would be a great leader for YouTube.

With the promise of AI in everything we’re doing across Shorts, Streaming and Subscriptions, YouTube’s most exciting opportunities lie ahead and Neal is the right person to lead us.

To all the YouTubers I’ve had the chance to work with, you’ve done so much to make this platform better over the years. You’ve created the world’s largest creative economy, enabled entirely new forms of art and storytelling, and supported millions of creators and artists to reach new audiences—all while investing in the responsible growth of this vibrant community of creators, artists, and audiences. , and advertisers can not only coexist but thrive together. Thank you!

As for me, in the short term, I plan to support Neil and help with the transition, which will include continuing to work with some of the YouTube team, coaching team members, and meeting with creators. Longer term, I agreed with Sundar to take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet. This will allow me to draw on my diverse experience over the years to provide advice and guidance across the Google and Alphabet portfolio of companies. This is an incredibly important time for Google—it reminds me of the early days—incredible product and technology innovation, huge opportunities, and a healthy disregard for the impossible.

And besides, I’ll still be around, so I’ll have the chance to thank the company and the thousands of people around the world I’ve worked with and learned from. But for now, I would like to thank Sundar for her leadership, support and vision over the years. I want to thank Larry and Sergey for inviting me on what was truly an adventure of a lifetime. I always dreamed of working for a company with a mission that could change the world for the better. Thanks to you and your vision, I have the opportunity to live that dream. It’s been an absolute privilege to be a part of it, and I’m excited for what’s next.

Thank you for everything,

susan