YouTube CEO Neal Mohan Named Time Magazine's 2025 CEO of the Year

Neal Mohan, the Chief Executive Officer of YouTube, has been named Time magazine's 2025 CEO of the Year, an acknowledgment of his substantial role in guiding the platform’s cultural and technological trajectory.

Time characterized Mohan, who assumed the chief executive role in February 2023, as cultivating the "cultural diet that the globe is beginning to subsist on," positioning YouTube as a principal architect of modern digital consumption habits. His leadership has reinforced YouTube's position in the competitive attention economy, supported by strategic expansion in services like YouTube TV and the core video application. The profile noted the executive's calm and deliberative style while steering what the publication termed the "world's most powerful distraction machine." Mohan's formative education included time in Lucknow, India, where he became fluent in Hindi and studied Sanskrit, an experience he later connected to the logic of computer programming.

Prior to his current role, Mohan served as YouTube's Chief Product Officer, overseeing the development of recommendation algorithms and features that have helped sustain the platform’s user base past two billion monthly active users. His earlier career at Google involved leading Display and Video Ads, which included his involvement in the $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick by Google in 2007. Mohan succeeded Susan Wojcicki, who stepped down in 2023, and has since prioritized executive strategy around optimizing for Connected TV (CTV) viewing and integrating generative Artificial Intelligence tools.

Platform evolution under Mohan's direction is reflected in key metrics. YouTube Shorts reportedly now attracts over 200 billion views daily, a significant increase from approximately 70 billion daily views reported in March 2024, signaling a strong position in the short-form video sector. Furthermore, more than half of the top 100 YouTube channels are now primarily viewed on television screens, a success fueled in part by YouTube TV’s growth to over eight million subscribers, positioning it as the fourth largest pay TV service in the U.S. Mohan has also supported the creator economy, with the global Partner Program supporting over three million creators, and a recent commitment of over $100 million for the ecosystem in India alone.

Mohan's current technological emphasis involves deploying AI-enabled features, such as the Veo 3 video generation tool, designed to augment human creativity. This strategic direction coincides with a rebound in YouTube's advertising revenue, which grew 15 percent to $25.7 billion in the first nine months of 2024, a vital income stream for Alphabet. Analysts cited by Time suggest that Mohan's command of both technology and media establishes him as a consequential executive in the current global content ecosystem.