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TAAF honors YouTube CEO Neal Mohan for advancing representation
YouTube's CEO credited his immigrant family, resilience and storytelling for shaping his career.
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Malvika Choudhary - Sat, 30, May 2026
- 16:47 EDT
- 35
Neal Mohan / YouTube/ TAAF
The chief executive officer of YouTube Neal Mohan was recently honored by The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) at its fourth annual Heritage Month Summit and Awards Dinner in New York City.
Mohan was among the honorees being recognized for helping "push boundaries and advance opportunity" for the community and demonstrating how visibility, support and leadership can inspire future generations.
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Accepting the award from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, Mohan thanked TAAF and said he was humbled to be recognized alongside leaders from across professions.
"I'd like to start off by just saying thank you to the TAAF board of directors, to Norman, to TAAF overall for this incredible recognition," Mohan said. "I'm deeply grateful for their impact in advancing safety, building belonging, and expanding prosperity for the entire AAPI community."
Mohan used the occasion to recount his family's immigration story, crediting his father for teaching him resilience. He said his father left India to pursue a Ph.D. at Purdue University and arrived in the United States with little money and no clear understanding of how far he still had to travel.
"He arrived at JFK in the dead of winter with $25 in his pocket, and he asked a stranger at the airport for directions to Indiana," Mohan said. "Because when you have a dream, nothing, not even a day-long bus ride in the middle of January, is going to stop you."
The YouTube chief executive said that example remained a source of inspiration whenever he faced challenges.
Mohan also reflected on growing up between two countries. Raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he said there were few students who looked like him in his classroom. Later, after his family moved to India, he found himself feeling out of place again.
"When I was a teenager, my parents moved our entire family to India," he said. "Again, I felt like an outsider. Now I was the American kid with the funny accent who could barely speak any Hindi at all."
Those experiences, he said, drew him toward storytelling as a way to connect with people across cultures and languages.
"In all of these moments as an outsider, I always found myself turning to the thing that felt universal no matter what, which is storytelling," Mohan said.
He said that realization became the foundation of his career and shaped his belief that technology can broaden access to storytelling and create opportunities for people who have historically been excluded from mainstream media.
"I saw early on that connecting technology and media could democratize storytelling and empower creators who have historically been left out of the conversation," he said.
Mohan linked that vision to YouTube's mission of giving people a platform to share their voices and stories. He said creators who once stood outside traditional media institutions are now helping shape culture around the world.
"When I look at these creators, I see the same unstoppable spirit that drove my dad to get on that bus to Indiana all those years ago," he said.
Mohan thanked his colleagues at YouTube, his parents, his wife Hema and his children before dedicating the award to future generations of Asian American and Pacific Islander leaders.
"I'd like to dedicate this award to the next generation of AAPI leaders and storytellers, those who years from now will be recognized on stages like this for their achievements," he said.
Mohan was recognized alongside Academy Award-winning actor Ke Huy Quan, entrepreneur Sheila Lirio Marcelo and former NBA player Jeremy Lin for their contributions to advancing opportunity and representation for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI).
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