Susan Wojcicki, 56, a prominent Google executive and former CEO of YouTube, passes away

Susan Wojcicki, one of Google’s initial recruits and the CEO of YouTube for nine years throughout the platform’s explosive expansion, passed away on Friday, August 9. She was 56 years old.

Susan  Wojcicki’s husband Dennis Troper revealed her passing on Friday night on Facebook, following a two-year battle with cancer.

After two years of battling non-small cell lung cancer, my cherished 26-year-married wife and mother of our five children departed us today,”

Troper wrote in the statement. In addition to being my lifelong best friend and companion, Susan was also a bright thinker, a devoted mother, and a close friend to many. Her influence on the world, and on our family, was immense. Though we are inconsolable, we are thankful for the time we spent with her. Please remember our family as we get through this trying time.

In a memorial posted on X, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said, “I am deeply saddened by the passing of my dear friend @SusanWojcicki after she battled cancer for two years.”

It is difficult to picture the world without her because she is as fundamental to Google’s history as anyone. Going on, Pichai said, “She was an amazing person, leader, and friend who had a tremendous impact on the world. I, along with many other Googlers, am better off for having known her.” She will be sorely missed. Our condolences to her family. RIP, Susan wojcicki.

As the sixteenth employee, Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 and became the company’s first marketing executive. Before Google sought office space, Wojcicki had rented out her garage in Menlo Park, California to co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, from whom they operated the business at first.

Susan wojcicki managed the establishment of Google Video in 2005 and the internet giant’s $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube, a competitor video-upload website that was just getting started, in 2006. She led the early development of Google’s image search and negotiated the company’s first license agreements for search technology, among other achievements.

In February of 2014, Susan wojcicki  was appointed CEO of YouTube. The fact that Google appointed Wojcicki, one of its most senior executives, demonstrated how crucial the video platform had grown to be to the company’s advertising revenue.

In February 2023, she resigned as YouTube’s CEO, while she continued to serve as an advisor to the business. Wojcicki announced her resignation as CEO of YouTube in a memo to the workforce at the time, stating that she was leaving to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.”

In an attempt to obtain a larger portion of the advertising revenue coming from traditional television networks,Susan wojcicki , as head of YouTube, attempted to expand the platform’s reach onto internet-connected TVs. When speaking at YouTube’s Brandcast event for advertisers in 2016, she stated, “At a time when TV is losing audiences, YouTube is growing in every region, on every screen.”

The following year, Wojcicki also had to deal with an advertiser boycott brought on by YouTube advertising featuring offensive content, such as videos of hate speech and terrorism, which compelled the platform to enact stronger brand-safety guidelines.

Susan wojcicki was a strong supporter of significant family benefits provided by businesses, including paid maternity leave. “Working at YouTube has given me the chance to support other women,” she stated to Variety in 2015. “I recognize women’s potential. I also like to be a mentor to them, helping them figure out how to manage career and family.

Having been an executive at the ad-tech business DoubleClick for 17 years, Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube after Wojcicki, claimed .

Mohan posted on X, saying, “Her legacy lives on in everything she touched @google and @youtube.” “I will always be appreciative of her friendship and wisdom. She will be sorely missed.

During her several positions at Google, Susan wojcicki was in charge of the syndication of the company’s products as well as the product management of AdSense, Google Book Search, and Google Video. She held positions at Intel, Bain & Co., and R.B. Webber & Co. before joining Google.

On July 5, 1968, Susan wojcicki was born in Santa Clara, California. Her mother, Esther Wojcicki, was a teacher, and her father, Stanley Wojcicki, taught physics at Stanford. She completed her undergraduate studies in history and literature at Harvard in 1990, and then went on to the University of California, Santa Cruz to obtain her master’s degree in economics in 1993.

In 1998, she graduated with an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. On August 23, 1998, Wojcicki wed Troper, who is a director of product management at Google at the moment.