Ex-YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Passes Away from Cancer at 56

Tech pioneer and former YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki, who played an instrumental role in the rise of Google, has died at the age of 56 after a battle with lung cancer, her husband announced on Friday.

Wojcicki, one of the most notable women in Silicon Valley, spent nearly two decades helping transform Google from a search engine startup to a global tech giant.

At YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006, Wojcicki led operations for almost a decade before stepping down last year to focus on her family, health, and personal projects.

Her husband, Dennis Troper, wrote on Facebook that she had been living with lung cancer for the past two years.

“My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today,” he stated.

“Susan was not just my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many. Her impact on our family and the world was immeasurable.”

Wojcicki was working at Intel when her friends Sergey Brin and Larry Page set up shop in the garage of her Menlo Park, California home in 1998. A year later, she joined Google as its 16th employee and first marketing manager.

During her tenure at Google, she contributed to the creation of image search and facilitated major acquisitions like YouTube and ad platform DoubleClick.

“She is as core to the history of Google as anyone, and it’s hard to imagine the world without her,” Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai wrote on the social media platform X.

“She was an incredible person, leader and friend who had a tremendous impact on the world, and I’m one of countless Googlers who is better for knowing her. We will miss her dearly.”

Wojcicki became the CEO of YouTube in 2014. She introduced new advertising formats and helped steer YouTube’s growth by launching a streaming television service as more viewers turned to the internet for television shows and films.

She also led the company through challenges around child privacy, hate speech, and the spread of misinformation, notably during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wojcicki, who was four months pregnant when she joined Google, became a vocal advocate for paid parental leave, arguing in a 2014 opinion essay that generous leave policies were beneficial for businesses.

She and Troper had five children together.

Source: Agence France-Presse