Through a tweet on Wednesday, Ms. Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, announced that the video streaming site has appointed Google’s senior VP for video and display advertising, Mr. Neal Mohan, as its new head of product and design. At his new job, Mr. Mohan will be reporting directly to Ms. Wojcicki, something he is already accustomed to having served under the current YouTube chief exec while she was the head of advertising at the Mountain View, California-based company. Mr. Mohan was only bestowed with the SVP title last month, when the CEO of Google, Mr. Sundar Pichai, made his first executive promotions. As for Ms. Wojcicki’s tweet announcing the appointment of Mr. Mohan at his new YouTube job, “Welcome @nealmohan to the @YouTube family to lead product & design. We’ve accomplished a lot in 2015, but much more to do in 2016!” was how she got the message across. The appointment has also been confirmed by a Google spokesperson, according to Re/Code.
Mr. Neal Mohan of course, is a much-respected executive in Silicon Valley and has been a target of headhunters working on behalf of multiple large internet companies like Twitter and Dropbox. His association with Google started back in 2008, when the search giant acquired the then-independent online advertising company, DoubleClick, where he was the senior VP of display advertising products. Prior to his stint at DoubleClick, Mr. Mohan had worked at other technology companies like Microsoft and Accenture. Once Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick was complete, Mr. Mohan was appointed as the company’s Vice President for display and video advertising. As head of Google’s display and mobile advertising products, Mr. Mohan is understood to have been in charge of the Google Display Network, AdSense, Admob, DoubleClick, Ad Exchange, Wildfire, InviteMedia and Admeld. Reports indicate that of late, he’s been working closely with his former boss, Ms. Wojcicki. So much so, that some people associated with YouTube from the outside looking in, apparently believed that he was already a part of the company, which of course, he wasn’t thus far.
As for the void being left behind by Mr. Mohan’s shift to YouTube, Google is understood to have already appointed its Vice President, Engineering and the head of Google Analytics, Mr. Paul Muret as the replacement for the newly-appointed head of product design at YouTube. The thing to note here however, is that Mr. Muret will reportedly not be leaving Google Analytics. Instead, reports claim that Google is looking to merge its analytics division into its display operations, so Mr. Muret will reportedly continue to report to the Senior Vice President of Ads & Commerce at Google, Mr. Sridhar Ramaswamy.