news/GOOG/2023.02.16/YouTube CEO Wojcicki, one of the first Google employees, steps down.txt

Feb 16 (Reuters) - YouTube Chief Executive and one of
the first Google employees, Susan Wojcicki, is stepping down
from her role at the tech giant that started in her garage
nearly 25 years ago, she said in a personal update on the
video-sharing platform on Thursday.Wojcicki, 54, will be replaced by her deputy Neal Mohan, a
senior advertising and product executive who joined Google in
2008.The change of guard comes as YouTube's advertising revenue
fell for the second straight quarter amid intense competition
for viewing time with short-form video services such as TikTok
and Facebook's Reels, and streaming services like Netflix.Mohan, a Stanford graduate, was appointed chief product
officer at YouTube in 2015. He focused on building YouTube
Shorts, Music and subscription offerings in the role.He previously spent nearly six years at DoubleClick, a
company Google acquired in 2008, and later served for about
eight years as senior vice president of display and video
advertising at Google.One of the most prominent women in tech, Wojcicki said she
will focus on "family, health, and personal projects", and plans
to take on an advisory role at Alphabet.She was previously senior vice president for ad products at
Google and became the CEO of YouTube in 2014."It strikes me as a forced exit caused by YouTube's
under-performance in recent quarters... What's less clear is
whether Mohan, who's had a relatively low profile to date, has
the leadership qualities to get YouTube back on track," said
Paul Verna, analyst at Insider Intelligence.Alphabet shares were barely changed for the day,
down less than 1% after the news.
(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik and Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru;
Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Arun Koyyur)