Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki was one of the most influential early Google The Google employee died at age 56, according to a post shared online by her husband, Dennis Troper, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Friday night.
Wojcicki led YouTube for nearly a decade and was one of the few women to serve as CEO of a major Silicon Valley tech company.
“It is with deep sadness that I share this news,” Wojcicki’s husband, Dennis Troper, wrote on Facebook early Friday night. Susan Wojcicki My beloved wife, with whom I was married for 26 years and the mother of our five children, passed away today after spending the last two years battling non-small cell lung cancer.”
Pichai confirmed his death and cancer status In a post He posted on social media on Friday that he was “incredibly saddened” by the loss.
in Note In a message to employees, Pichai called Wojcicki “one of the most dynamic and vibrant people I’ve ever met. Her death is devastating for all of us who knew and loved her, for the thousands of Googlers she led over the years, and for the millions around the world who looked up to her, benefited from her advocacy and leadership, and felt the impact of the great things she created at Google, YouTube and beyond.”
“Susan’s journey is inspiring in every way, from renting a garage with Larry and Sergey to leading a consumer products team and building our advertising business to becoming CEO of one of the world’s most important platforms: YouTube. But she didn’t stop there. As one of Google’s first employees and the first to take maternity leave, Susan used her position to build a better work environment for everyone, and in the years that followed, her advocacy for parental leave set a new standard for every company. Susan also had a deep passion for education. She recognized early on that YouTube could be a learning platform for the world, and specifically supported ‘edutubers’ who were expanding STEM education to underserved communities.”
Wojcicki, 56, became YouTube’s CEO in 2014. He will step down from that role in February 2023 but said he will continue to work with the YouTube team, mentor members and meet with creators.
She helped grow Google from its inception into a technology giant and is credited with shepherding some of its most successful products.
Soon after she founded Google, she allowed Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to work from her home in Menlo Park, California, where Page and Brin rented garage space from her for $1,700 a month. At the time, Wojcicki was working in marketing at Intel.
Wojcicki joined Google as employee number 16 in 1999 and spent 14 years overseeing the design and building of Google’s advertising and analytics products. He played a key role in developing Google’s advertising business, including co-creating AdSense, one of the company’s most successful products.
In 2006, she advocated for Google’s then-$1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube.
“The founders trust Susan more than maybe anyone else on the planet,” Patrick Keane, an early sales director at Google, wrote in his 2022 book, “Like, Comment, Subscribe: YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to Global Domination.” “No matter how challenging the situation, you can never falter Susan.”
“When people couldn’t get him to see reason, she always managed to,” Kim Scott, a former Google executive and early influencer in the Silicon Valley workplace, wrote in the book, referring to Google co-founder Larry Page as the “Larry whisperer.”
During his tenure as CEO of YouTube, Wojcicki oversaw the company’s rapid growth, turning it into the world’s largest video platform, which now has more than 2.5 billion monthly active users and more than 500 hours of content uploaded to the platform every minute, according to the company.
Condolences poured in from a wide range of technology and venture capital leaders on Friday night after her death was announced.
“Seventeen years ago I had the good fortune to meet Susan, who was the driving force behind the acquisition of DoubleClick,” wrote Neal Mohan, current YouTube CEO. Social Medium posted on Friday night. “Her legacy lives on in everything she touched at Google and YouTube.”
“She taught me the business and helped me grow and navigate a fairly chaotic organization at the beginning of my career in tech,” former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in a social media post. “As one of the most important female leaders in tech and the first woman to lead a major company, she was instrumental in expanding opportunities for women across Silicon Valley. Without her unwavering support, I don’t think my career would have taken the shape it has today.”
“I am deeply saddened by the passing of my dear colleague and friend @SusanWojcicki,” Google’s chief scientist Jeff Dean wrote. Social Media Friday night. “She had a huge impact on everyone at Google and touched so many lives.”
