Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has died of non-small cell lung cancer, her husband, Dennis Troper, has confirmed. on Facebook on Saturday. She was 56 years old.
“It is with deep sadness that I share the news of the passing of Susan Wojcicki. My beloved wife of 26 years and mother of our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non-small cell lung cancer,” the Troper wrote, called his own. the late wife a “brilliant mind” and “loving mother” to their children.
“Her impact on our family and the world was immeasurable. We are heartbroken but grateful for the time we had with her,” the post read.
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Wojcicki's influence in Silicon Valley
Wojcicki graduated from Harvard University in 1990 with a Bachelor's degree before earning a Masters in Economics from the University of California-Santa Cruz. She also earned an MBA in 1998 from the University of California-Los Angeles Her LinkedIn.
In 1998, Wojcicki has rented it out garage in Menlo Park, California, for 25-year-old aspiring tech entrepreneurs Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Both were working on a search engine that would later become known as Google.
Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki (Mateusz Wlodarczyk/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
After the Google co-founders moved into an official office, the pair offered Wojcicki a job at the company as a marketing manager in 1999. She was Google's 16th employee.
Wojcicki worked in different positions at the company, including SVP of AdWords and AdSense from 2011 to 2014. In 2006, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion and in 2014, Wojcicki jumped to the video platform where she served as CEO until she resigned last year.
Tech leaders shared condolences on social media with many noting the impact Wojcicki had on the industry and their careers, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
“Her loss is devastating to all of us who knew and loved her, to the thousands of Googlers she led over the years, and to the millions of people around the world who watched her, benefited from her advocacy and leadership, and felt .the impact of the incredible things she created at Google, YouTube and beyond,” Pichai wrote an internal memo to employees.
Former Googler and longtime Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg credited Wojcicki in a Facebook note for blazing a trail for other women in tech.
“She taught me the business and helped me lead a growing, fairly chaotic organization early in my career in technology.” Sandberg wrote. “She was the person I turned to for advice over and over again. And she was that person for many others as well.”
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She is revered by many as a trailblazer for women in Silicon Valley.