Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki speaks at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on May 24, 2022.
Fabrice Coferini/AFP via Getty Images
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Fabrice Coferini/AFP via Getty Images
Susan Wojcicki, a Silicon Valley visionary who helped shape Google and YouTube, died Friday after a two-year battle with non-small cell lung cancer, according to her husband. She is 56 years old.
“Susan was not only my best friend and companion throughout my life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother and a dear friend to many,” her husband, Dennis Troper, said in a statement. wrote on Facebook. “Her impact on our family and the world is immeasurable.”
Wojcicki was born in Santa Clara, California, and grew up on the campus of Stanford University. Her father was a physicist. There, she developed a passion for innovation and changing the world. (Her two younger sisters, Anne and Janet, also went on to become leaders in their fields.)
In 1998, Wojcicki rented her garage to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford graduate students on the cusp of founding the search giant Google .
Wojcicki quickly saw the company’s potential and quit his job at Intel to become Google’s first marketing manager. Over the next few years, she quickly rose through the ranks, helping to grow the platform’s consumer products and build its advertising business.
Wojcicki later played an important role in Google’s acquisition of YouTube in 2006, when it was still a small startup. She was named YouTube CEO in 2014 and has led YouTube’s explosive growth over the past decade. She also oversees the platform’s response to hate speech, misinformation and inappropriate content.
In 2023, Wojcicki announced that she would step down from her position “to focus on this new chapter of my family, health, and personal projects.”
“I take on every challenge that comes my way because of its mission to benefit the lives of so many people around the world: to find information, tell stories, and support creators, artists, and small businesses. I’m extremely proud of what we have It’s exciting, meaningful, and immersive,” she said in a blog post.
In addition to nurturing two tech giants, Wojcicki is also committed to improving the workplace for women and parents. At Google, she was the first person to take parental leave and continues to advocate for such policies within the workforce.
On Saturday, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said Wojcicki would be remembered for her “always putting others first.”
“I will never forget the kindness she showed me as a future ‘Noogler’ 20 years ago. She took me out for ice cream and a walk around campus while I was interviewing at Google. I was convinced by Google and Susan, ” he said in a statement.
Wojcicki is also known for her attention-grabbing commencement address at Johns Hopkins University in 2014.
“It’s rare that an opportunity comes to you in a perfect way, in a pretty little box with a yellow bow on top,” she said. “Opportunities, good opportunities, they’re messy, they’re confusing, they’re hard to identify. They’re risky. They challenge you.”
