Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has died

Susan Wojcicki, who served as YouTube’s CEO for nearly a decade until stepping down last year, has died. He was 56 years old. Her husband Dennis Troper shared the news on Facebook, revealing that Wojcicki had been living with non-small cell lung cancer for two years. “Susan was not only my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many,” she wrote in her post. “His impact on our family and the world was immeasurable.”

Google worked out of Wojcicki’s garage when the company was just starting out, with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin using it as their office. He became the company’s first marketing manager, co-developed Google Image Search and was the first AdSense product manager. Wojcicki also led Google’s video efforts and was the one who encouraged the company to buy YouTube in 2006, a year after the video-sharing platform launched.

In 2014, he was appointed CEO of YouTube, which became an integral part of Google under his leadership. In fiscal year 2022, the year before he stepped down, YouTube ads generated $29.24 billion in revenue, making up more than 10 percent of the company’s total revenue. Outside of her work with Google, Wojcicki brought attention to the issue of the gender gap in technology and the plight of refugees. He was also a promoter of long leaves for parents and talked about how they are actually good for business. In a post on X, Alphabet’s current CEO, Sundar Photosi, said Wojcicki was “as important to Google’s history as anyone” and described him as someone who “had a huge impact on the world.”

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