Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Dies Aged 56

Former YouTube and Google CEO Susan Wojcicki died on Saturday at the age of 56 after a two-year battle with lung cancer.

Wojcicki's husband, Dennis Tropper, said in a Facebook post: "It is with great sadness that I share with you the news of Susan Wojcicki's passing. My beloved wife of 26 years and the mother of our five children passed away today after two years of living with lung cancer."

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post: “Over the past two years, even as she dealt with significant personal difficulties, Susan has dedicated herself to making the world better through her charitable work, including supporting research into the disease that ultimately took her life.” according to what was reported by Reuters.

One of the most prominent women in technology, Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 to become one of the first few employees at the leading web search company, years before it acquired YouTube.

Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion.

Before becoming CEO of YouTube in 2014, Wojcicki was senior vice president of advertising products at Google.

After nine years at the helm, Wojcicki is stepping down from her role at YouTube in 2023 to focus on “family, health, and personal projects.” She was replaced by her deputy, Neil Mohan, a senior advertising and product executive who joined Google in 2008. Wojcicki at the time planned to take on a consulting role at Alphabet, Google's parent company.

“Twenty-five years ago, I made the decision to join two graduate students at Stanford University who were working on building a new search engine,” Wojcicki wrote in a blog post on the day she left YouTube. “Their names were Larry and Sergey...it was "It's one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life." In reference to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

“Today, we at YouTube lost a teammate, mentor, and friend, Susan Wojcicki,” Mohan said in a post on X.