Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki dies at 56 of lung cancer

YouTube’s former chief govt and long-time Google govt Susan Wojcicki died on Saturday on the age of 56 after a two-year battle with lung most cancers.

“It’s with profound disappointment that I share the information of Susan Wojcicki passing. My beloved spouse of 26 years and mom to our 5 kids left us immediately after 2 years of residing with non-small cell lung most cancers,” Dennis Troper, Wojcicki’s husband, stated in a Fb submit.

“During the last two years, whilst she handled nice private difficulties, Susan devoted herself to creating the world higher by her philanthropy, together with supporting analysis for the illness that in the end took her life,” Google GOOGL.O Chief Government Sundar Pichai stated in a weblog submit.

Some of the distinguished ladies in tech, Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 to change into one of many first few staff of the online search chief, years earlier than it acquired YouTube.

Google purchased YouTube in 2006 for US$1.65 billion.

Earlier than turning into CEO of YouTube in 2014, Wojcicki was senior vice chairman for advert merchandise at Google.

After 9 years on the helm, Wojcicki stepped down from her position at YouTube in 2023 to concentrate on “household, well being, and private tasks.” She was changed by her deputy, Neal Mohan, a senior promoting and product govt who joined Google in 2008. Wojcicki at the moment deliberate to tackle an advisory position at Alphabet, Google’s mum or dad firm.

“Twenty-five years in the past I made the choice to affix a few Stanford graduate college students who have been constructing a brand new search engine. Their names have been Larry and Sergey …. It could be among the finest choices of my life,” Wojcicki wrote in a weblog submit on the day she left YouTube, referring to Google co-founders Larry Web page and Sergey Brin.

“Right now we at YouTube misplaced a teammate, mentor, and buddy, Susan Wojcicki,” Mohan stated in a submit on X.

(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Enhancing by William Mallard and Mark Potter)