USA (Commonwealth Union)_ TIME Magazine has named YouTube CEO Neal Mohan its 2025 CEO of the Year, recognizing a leader who now sits at the center of global digital culture. Mohan took over the top job in 2023 and has since guided the world’s largest video platform through a period of rapid change, growing influence, and constant scrutiny. In its citation, TIME described him not just as a business executive but as someone shaping what billions of people watch, learn, and debate every day. The magazine used a striking metaphor to explain Mohan’s role. It compared YouTube to a vast garden, where creators plant all kinds of content—useful, entertaining, controversial, or harmful. Mohan, TIME said, is the caretaker of that space. What grows there, the publication argued, increasingly becomes the cultural “diet” of the modern world. Despite running what TIME called the “world’s most powerful distraction,” Mohan seems to be unexpectedly calm and grounded.
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YouTube marked its 20th anniversary this year, and under Mohan’s leadership, the platform is seen as both a global brand and a universe of its own. Now 52, Mohan was born in 1973 in Lafayette, Indiana. In his childhood, his family moved to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, after his Tamil parents decided to return to India. There, Mohan learned Hindi, studied Sanskrit, and completed his schooling. His father, a civil engineer, later returned to the United States to pursue a PhD, and the family eventually followed. Mohan went on to study at Stanford University, where he earned both his undergraduate degree and an MBA. He has often spoken about how learning Sanskrit helped shape his thinking, comparing its strict grammatical rules to the logic of computer programming. Tragedy also touched his life early: his younger brother Anuj died at the age of 30 in a swimming pool accident.
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Professionally, Mohan began his career in consulting before joining NetGravity, an early digital advertising startup. That company was later acquired by DoubleClick, where Mohan rose through the ranks and played a key role in its $3.1 billion sale to Google in 2007. After the acquisition, he considered leaving for Twitter but chose to stay at Google following a retention offer. His career took a decisive turn when Susan Wojcicki, then CEO of YouTube, brought him into the company. The two worked closely for years, and Mohan gradually became one of her most trusted lieutenants. When Wojcicki was diagnosed with cancer, she shared the news with him personally. During her treatment, Mohan took on many of her responsibilities and eventually succeeded her as CEO in 2023. Wojcicki passed away in August 2024.
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Mohan’s tenure has not been without controversy. YouTube faced lawsuits over content moderation decisions, including a high-profile case linked to the suspension of former US President Donald Trump’s channel after the January 6 Capitol attack. The lawsuit continued even after the channel was restored and was ultimately settled in 2025 without any admission of wrongdoing. Away from the headlines, Mohan describes his mission simply: to build the best platform in the world for people to share their talent. TIME notes that despite his immense influence, he remains soft-spoken and thoughtful. At home, he is a family man, married to Hema Sareen Mohan, with two daughters and a son. His downtime is modest, watching sports, attending his daughters’ dance performances, and sticking to his trademark plain white shirts.
