In posts made by her spouse Dennis Troper and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Susan Wojcicki, the sixteenth employee of Google, who helped launch the firm in her garage, oversaw its advertising division, and then oversaw YouTube for the majority of the previous ten years, passed away at the age of 56.
After starting her career at Google in 1998, she served as CEO of YouTube from February 2014 until her resignation in February 2023 to concentrate on her “family, health, and personal projects.” She had been battling non-small cell lung cancer, according to Troper and Pichai. Marco Troper, her son, passed away earlier this year.
She was listed as one of the 50 most significant individuals influencing the globe in 2014. She not only contributed to the growth of Google into one of the most significant businesses of the last 20 years, but also made YouTube the birthplace of the next wave of influencers and celebrities.
For the majority of her employment, Wojcicki reported directly to Google’s co-founders, earning her the reputation of being one of the company’s most powerful women. She was the one who persuaded Google’s board to purchase YouTube, according to a 2011 San Jose Mercury News article.
The most important contribution Wojcicki made to the establishment of Google’s enormous advertising business was probably her role in the 2007 acquisition of DoubleClick, which is widely believed to have been essential to the company’s growth. She also played a key role in the creation of AdSense. The US Justice Department has filed an antitrust action against Google because of its purported monopoly in the digital advertising sector.
Regarding Wojcicki’s passing, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has released the following public memo, which is also being given to Google staff members:
Google employees,
You may have heard by now that Susan Wojcicki, who had been battling lung cancer for two years, has passed away. It seems incomprehensible to me that this is true even as I type it. I have never encountered someone as lively and dynamic as Susan. Her passing is tragic for all of us who knew and loved her, for the thousands of Google employees she oversaw throughout the years, and for the millions of people who looked up to her, profited from her leadership and advocacy, and experienced the impact of the amazing things she produced at Google, YouTube, and other places.
Susan’s experience began when she rented a garage from Larry and Sergey and continued when she led teams managing consumer goods and expanded our advertising business. to become the CEO of one of the biggest platforms in the world, YouTube, is admirable in every way. She didn’t stop there, though. Being one of the original Google employees and the first to take a maternity leave, Susan made the most of her role to improve the working environment for all. Additionally, in the years that followed, her support of parental leave established a new benchmark for companies worldwide. Susan had a strong interest in schooling as well. She was an early adopter of the idea that YouTube might serve as a global learning platform, and she supported “edutubers,” particularly those who helped underprivileged areas access STEM education.
Susan dedicated herself to improving the world through her charity over the previous two years, despite facing significant personal challenges. This included funding research into the illness that finally claimed her life. That must have meant a lot to her, and I’m delighted she took the time to do it.
In her daily life as well as her morals, Susan has always put the needs of others first. Her generosity to me twenty years ago as a potential “Noogler” is something I will never forget. She took me out for ice cream and a campus stroll during my Google interview. I was won over by Susan and Google.
Like many of you, I consider myself extremely lucky to have worked directly with Susan for such a long time; her staff here adored her. Despite having a far too brief time here on Earth, she made the most of every second.
We keep in constant contact with Susan’s family, which includes Dennis, her spouse and fellow Google employee. We’ll be revealing more about how we plan to honor her extraordinary life soon. Let’s commemorate Susan’s memory in the interim by carrying on with the creation of a Google she would be proud of.