Why is YouTube’s Neal Mohan TIME's CEO of the Year?

What makes someone the year’s best CEO? According to TIME the honour relates to leading substantial company growth, actioning strategic bets and adopting an approachable leadership style.

Neal Mohan, CEO of the video-sharing platform giant YouTube, ticks each of those boxes, according to the magazine.

With media platforms changing at a rapid rate, Neal has stayed ahead of the curve, adapting the streaming service for creators, viewers and investors.

“The entire dynamics of the entire media industry are changing before our eyes,” TIME reports him as saying. “It’s incredibly disruptive, and if you don’t adapt, you can be left by the wayside.”

Progress at YouTube

Since taking the helm in February 2023, when Neal took over from the late Susan Wojcicki, who bought him in to the company when she became leader in 2014, the platform has increased its dominance against competitors.

This includes growing YouTube from a small-screen application to the TV, becoming a cable-TV replacement for many households and remaining free to use.

The introduction of YouTube shorts has also made the platform more competitive against the likes of Instagram and TikTok.

Under his leadership, revenue from advertisements and subscriptions has skyrocketed. In 2024, the platform generated more than US$36bn in advertising revenue and an additional US$14bn from subscriptions, according to its executives. 

In 2025, it has taken in 15% more advertising dollars in the first three quarters, and in March announced it had 25% more subscribers to YouTube Music and Premium than in the same period in the previous year.

Neal added: “YouTube today is like a metropolis with lots of interconnected dependencies, and what you do on one street impacts what happens on another street.”

Keeping creators at the heart of YouTube

When YouTube started 20 years ago, the platform was filled with small communities of content creators. From filming their lives to completing challenges, it was a space for creativity that blossomed into something much bigger, and sometimes livelihoods.

The CEO has shown he is aware that creators have done much of the heavy lifting when it comes to YouTube’s success, working for free in the hope that enough people will watch their channel to draw in advertisers and sponsors.

“Creator success on the platform brings in all of these viewers and fans from all over the world, which in turn brings in brands and advertisers and marketing opportunities and that in turn attracts the next batch of creators,” says Neal. “That’s my encapsulation of my vision for YouTube.”

TIME says that YouTube is both benefitting from and helping create a massive marketing shift to the names “creator economy”, stating that a recent trade-group report predicted that advertisers will spend US$37bn with creators this year. This is an increase of a quarter from 2024.

Neal’s broad understanding of the stakeholders of the platform doesn’t stop here. Across all avenues, the magazine says he is superior at staying calm and composed, creating an “uncle level” leadership style.

The life of the CEO

TIME describes him as quietly spoken, deliberate and hard to ruffle. Outside of leading YouTube he likes watching sports and going to his daughters’ dance recitals.

According to his LinkedIn, Neal started his professional career as a Senior Analyst at Accenture in 1996 at 24 years old.

A year later he joined DoubleClick, which was a digital advertising technology company, as a Director of Global Client Services, before progressing to Vice President of Business Operations.

During the acquisition of DoubleClick by Google in 2007 for US$3.1bn to bolster its display ad business, Neal started the role of Senior Vice President of Display and Video Ads at Google. 

It was here that the exec worked extensively with Susan, building a relationship that helped shape the next stages of his career.

“I’m a technologist by passion and training,” Neal tells TIME. “I also happen to be somebody who loves media in the broadcast sense of that term. And so building products, whether in the advertising world or at YouTube, is sort of my passion.”