Susan Wojcicki, who served as CEO of YouTube for 9 years throughout a interval of large development for the video platform and was one in all Google‘s first hires, died on Friday, Aug. 9. She was 56.
Wojcicki’s demise after a two-year combat with most cancers was introduced by her husband, Dennis Troper, in a public submit Friday night on Fb.
“It’s with profound disappointment that I share the information of Susan Wojcicki passing. My beloved spouse of 26 years and mom to our 5 youngsters left us at this time after 2 years of dwelling with non-small cell lung most cancers,” Troper wrote within the submit. “Susan was not simply my greatest buddy and companion in life, however an excellent thoughts, a loving mom, and a pricey buddy to many. Her affect on our household and the world was immeasurable. We’re heartbroken, however grateful for the time we had along with her. Please maintain our household in your ideas as we navigate this tough time.”
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, in a tribute posted on X mentioned, “Unbelievably saddened by the lack of my expensive buddy @SusanWojcicki after two years of dwelling with most cancers. She is as core to the historical past of Google as anybody, and it’s laborious to think about the world with out her.” Pichai continued, “She was an unbelievable individual, chief and buddy who had an amazing affect on the world and I’m one in all numerous Googlers who is best for realizing her. We’ll miss her dearly. Our ideas along with her household. RIP Susan.”
Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 because the sixteenth worker, changing into the search engine’s first advertising exec. Co-founders Larry Web page and Sergey Brin initially ran the corporate out of her storage in Menlo Park, Calif., which Wojcicki had rented out to the duo earlier than Google secured workplace area.
In 2005, Wojcicki led the launch of Google Video — and in 2006 she oversaw the web firm’s $1.65 billion buy of YouTube, a then-fledgling rival video-upload web site. Amongst different accomplishments, she minimize the corporate’s first offers to license search expertise and led the preliminary improvement of Google’s picture search.
In February 2014, Wojcicki was named YouTube’s CEO. Google’s appointment of Wojcicki, one of many firm’s most senior execs, mirrored how essential the video platform had grow to be to its promoting enterprise. She stepped down as CEO of YouTube in February 2023, whereas remaining an adviser to the corporate. In a memo to workers on the time, Wojcicki mentioned she was exiting as head of YouTube to “begin a brand new chapter centered on my household, well being, and private tasks I’m obsessed with.”
As head of YouTube, Wojcicki pushed to construct out the platform’s enlargement onto internet-connected TVs, angling to win a much bigger share of advert {dollars} from conventional tv networks. “At a time when TV is dropping audiences, YouTube is rising in each area, on each display,” she mentioned in 2016 at YouTube’s Brandcast occasion for entrepreneurs. Wojcicki additionally was pressured to reckon with an advertiser boycott the next 12 months in response to advertisements on YouTube that ran with objectionable content material, together with terrorism and hate-speech movies, which prompted the platform to implement stricter brand-safety insurance policies.
Beneath Wojcicki’s management, Google launched YouTube TV, which had greater than 8 million prospects as of early 2024 and the U.S.’s largest streaming pay-TV service, stealing share from conventional cable and satellite tv for pc operators. In late 2022, the corporate scored a seven-year, multibillion-dollar take care of the NFL to creating YouTube the unique U.S. retailer of the Sunday Ticket out-of-market video games bundle. In 2015, the platform debuted a Netflix-style streaming service, known as YouTube Pink, stocked with authentic reveals and flicks — however that didn’t pan out, and YouTube finally shut down its authentic programming initiative.
Wojcicki was a vocal advocate for employers to supply beneficiant household advantages, significantly paid maternity go away. “At YouTube, it’s been a chance for me to have the ability to assist different ladies,” she advised Selection in 2015. “I see the potential that ladies have. And I take pleasure in being a mentor, figuring one of the simplest ways for them to steadiness work with household.”
Neal Mohan, who succeeded Wojcicki as YouTube CEO, mentioned he’d had “the nice fortune of assembly Susan 17 years in the past when when she was the architect of the DoubleClick acquisition,” the ad-tech firm the place he had been an govt. “Her legacy lives on in all the pieces she touched @google and @youtube,” Mohan wrote on X. “I’m eternally grateful for her friendship and steering. I’ll miss her tremendously. My coronary heart goes out to her household and family members.”
In her a number of stints at Google, Wojcicki had overseen product administration of AdSense, Google E book Search and Google Video in addition to the syndication of the corporate’s merchandise. Previous to Google, she labored at Intel, Bain & Co. and R.B. Webber & Co.
Wojcicki was born on July 5, 1968, in Santa Clara, Calif. Her father, Stanley Wojcicki, was a physics professor at Stanford and her mom, Esther Wojcicki, was a trainer. She graduated from Harvard in 1990 with a bachelor’s diploma in historical past and literature earlier than incomes a grasp’s in economics on the College of California, Santa Cruz in 1993. She acquired an MBA from the UCLA Anderson Faculty of Administration in 1998. Wojcicki married Troper, who at present works at Google as a director of product administration, on Aug. 23, 1998.