Susan Wojcicki, former YouTube CEO and longtime Google executive, has died at 56

Susan Wojcicki, a pioneering tech govt who helped form Google and YouTube, has died, her husband stated. She was 56.

Wojcicki performed a key function in Google’s creation and served 9 years as YouTube’s CEO, stepping down final 12 months to deal with her “household, well being, and private tasks I’m keen about,” she stated on the time.

She was one of the vital revered feminine executives within the male-dominated tech business.

Her collaboration with Google co-founders Larry Web page and Sergey Brin started shortly after they included their search engine right into a enterprise in 1998. Wojcicki rented the storage of her Menlo Park, California, house to them for $1,700 a month, cementing a formative partnership. Web page and Brin — each 25 on the time — continued to refine their search engine in Wojcicki’s storage for 5 months earlier than shifting Google right into a extra formal workplace and later persuaded their former landlord to return work for his or her firm.

Wojcicki joined Google, now generally known as Alphabet, as its advertising supervisor in 1999 and served in numerous positions as Google grew its internet advertising presence by buying YouTube in 2006 and DoubleClick in 2008. She served as Google’s senior vice chairman of promoting and commerce from 2011 to early 2014 and CEO of YouTube from 2014 to 2023.

“Her loss is devastating for all of us who know and love her, for the hundreds of Googlers she led over time, and for thousands and thousands of individuals everywhere in the world who regarded as much as her, benefited from her advocacy and management, and felt the impression of the unimaginable issues she created at Google, YouTube, and past,” Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai stated in a observe to workers.

Former Fb COO Sheryl Sandberg, who was vice chairman of Google’s gross sales and operations from 2001 to 2008 earlier than decamping to Fb, stated in a Fb submit that Wojcicki was formative in her tech profession.

“She taught me the enterprise and helped me navigate a rising, pretty chaotic group initially of my profession in tech,” Sandberg wrote. “She was the particular person I turned to for recommendation again and again. And she or he was this particular person for therefore many others too.”

Her husband, Dennis Troper, introduced her demise in a social media submit late Friday.

“My beloved spouse of 26 years and mom to our 5 kids left us right now after 2 years of residing with non small cell lung most cancers,” he wrote.

“Susan was not simply my finest good friend and accomplice in life, however a superb thoughts, a loving mom, and a pricey good friend to many,” Troper stated.

No different particulars of her demise have been instantly offered.

Wojcicki and Troper’s 19-year-old son, Marco Troper, died in February on the UC Berkeley campus the place he resided as a freshman scholar.