Susan Wojcicki, who served as CEO of YouTube for nine years during a period of massive growth for the video platform and was one of Google’s first hires, has died. She was 56.
Wojcicki’s death after a two-year fight with cancer was announced by Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. “Unbelievably saddened by the loss of my dear friend @SusanWojcicki after two years of living with cancer,” Pichai wrote in a post Friday night on X.
“She is as core to the history of Google as anyone, and it’s hard to imagine the world without her,” Pichai continued. “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. Our thoughts with her family. RIP Susan.”
In February 2014, Wojcicki was named YouTube’s CEO. Google’s appointment of Wojcicki, one of the company’s most senior execs, reflected how important the video platform had become to its advertising business. She stepped down as CEO of YouTube in February 2023, while remaining an adviser to the company.
Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 as the 16th employee, becoming the search engine’s first marketing exec. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin initially ran the company out of her garage in Menlo Park, Calif. She cut the company’s first deals to license search technology and led the initial development of Google’s image search.
In her multiple stints at Google, Wojcicki had overseen product management of AdSense, Google Book Search and Google Video as well as the syndication of the company’s products. Prior to Google, she worked at Intel, Bain & Co. and R.B. Webber & Co.
Source Agencies
