YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Steps Down

After serving as CEO of YouTube for nine years, Susan Wojcicki made the announcement today that she will be “stepping back” from the company.

Even though she didn’t tweet anything herself, the official YouTube Creators account published a screenshot of an executive’s letter announcing the announcement. Neal Mohan, the platform’s chief product officer who has worked there since November 2015, will take her position. On the official YouTube blog, Wojcicki also shared a longer version of the same statement. Wojcicki stated that she wants to “start a new chapter focused on [her] family, health, and personal projects” in that letter. She remained vague about the nature of the efforts. She clarified, though, that she wouldn’t necessarily be leaving Mohan stranded.

She stated; “I plan to stay around for a period of time to help Neal with the transition, and will serve as an advisor to Google and Alphabet. I remain just as convinced today as when I started nine years ago, that YouTube’s best days are ahead of it.”

The 54-year-old Harvard alumnus has been employed at Google for more than two decades. She worked as Google’s senior vice president of Adwords and Adsense prior to her tenure as CEO of YouTube. In 1999, not long after the search engine’s founding, she started working there. After more than ten years of service to Google, Mohan takes over as CEO. He was Google’s senior vice president of display and video ads from 2008 until he assumed the position of chief product officer at YouTube. The executive shuffle comes as Twitch, a more reputable live-streaming platform for video games, and YouTube continue to fight for position in the streaming sector.

YouTube Gaming has recently snatched up a few well-known creators by offering them substantial exclusivity contracts to leave Twitch. Examples of these creators include Ludwig and TimTheTatman.