Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki dies at 56 after battle with lung cancer : NPR

Susan Wojcicki, a Silicon Valley visionary who helped form Google and YouTube, died Friday after a two-year battle with non-small cell lung most cancers, in keeping with her husband. She was 56.

“Susan was not simply my finest buddy and accomplice in life, however an excellent thoughts, a loving mom, and a pricey buddy to many,” her husband, Dennis Troper, wrote in a Fb submit. “Her affect on our household and the world was immeasurable.”

Wojcicki, born in Santa Clara, Calif., grew up on Stanford College’s campus, the place her father was a physicist. There, she developed a ardour for innovation and making a distinction on the planet. (Her two youthful sisters, Anne and Janet, additionally went on to change into powerhouses in their very own respective fields.)

In 1998, Wojcicki rented her storage to Larry Web page and Sergey Brin, a pair of Stanford grad college students on the cusp of constructing the search big Google.

Wojcicki rapidly noticed the corporate’s potential and left her job at Intel to change into Google’s first advertising supervisor. Within the years to comply with, she rapidly moved up the ranks, having a hand at rising the platform’s client merchandise and constructing its promoting enterprise.

Later, Wojcicki performed a serious position in Google’s buy of YouTube in 2006 when it was only a small startup. She was appointed YouTube’s CEO in 2014 and led its explosive progress over the previous decade. She additionally oversaw the platform because it grappled with hate speech, misinformation and inappropriate content material.

In 2023, Wojcicki introduced she would step down from her position to ” begin a brand new chapter targeted on my household, well being, and private tasks.”

“I took on every problem that got here my method as a result of it had a mission that benefited so many individuals’s lives all over the world: discovering data, telling tales and supporting creators, artists, and small companies. I’m so pleased with every part we’ve achieved. It’s been exhilarating, significant, and all-consuming,” she stated in a weblog submit.

Other than rising two tech behemoths, Wojcicki additionally devoted herself to bettering the office for girls and oldsters. At Google, she was the primary to take parental depart and continued to advocate for such insurance policies within the workforce.

On Saturday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated Wojcicki might be remembered for a way she “at all times put others first.”

“I’ll always remember her kindness to me as a potential ‘Noogler’ 20 years in the past. Throughout my Google interview she took me out for an ice cream and a stroll round campus. I used to be bought – on Google and Susan,” he stated in a press release.

Wojcicki was additionally recognized for her compelling commencement speech at Johns Hopkins College in 2014. There, she mirrored on her profession and the character of alternatives.

“Hardly ever are alternatives introduced to you within the good method, in a pleasant little field with a yellow bow on prime,” she stated. “Alternatives, the great ones, they’re messy and complicated and exhausting to acknowledge. They’re dangerous. They problem you.”

Silicon Valley group and YouTube creators mourn a tech pioneer

On Saturday, the pinnacle of YouTube, Neal Mohan, who assumed the position after Wojcicki, wrote on X that YouTube misplaced “a teammate, mentor, and buddy. … I’m ceaselessly grateful for her friendship and steerage. I’ll miss her tremendously. My coronary heart goes out to her household and family members.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner additionally mourned Wojcicki’s passing. “She was considered one of Silicon Valley’s visionaries and he or she might be missed by so many. Could she relaxation in peace,” he wrote on X.

Marc Benioff, CEO and co-founder of Salesforce, described Wojcicki — who was on Salesforce’s board — as a trailblazer and an instance of nice management. “She had a exceptional means to guide with grace and imaginative and prescient, lighting up each interplay along with her knowledge and heat. Her type coronary heart, sensible counsel, and philanthropic spirit touched numerous lives,” he stated on X.

Exterior of Silicon Valley, John and Hank Inexperienced — each authors and widespread YouTubers — shared their condolences.

“Folks really feel just like the construction of the world is inevitable, however it’s constructed by folks and what yall constructed beneath Susan’s quiet management in a ridiculously advanced atmosphere is extraordinarily particular and head and shoulders above what others created. I’m so unhappy to have misplaced her,” Hank Inexperienced wrote on X.

John Inexperienced said, “She was (very quietly) the only greatest donor to our mission supporting maternal well being in Sierra Leone. She by no means as soon as requested for credit score or consideration for her gifts–just privately supported our mission and lots of others. An distinctive chief and particular person.”