Susan Wojcicki, the former YouTube CEO and one of Google's earliest employees, has passed away at the age of 56 after a two-year battle with lung cancer. The news of her demise was shared by Wojcicki's husband Dennis Troper in a Facebook post.
"My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non-small cell lung cancer" Troper said in a post on August 10.
"Susan was not just my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many. Her impact on our family and the world was immeasurable. We are heartbroken, but grateful for the time we had with her. Please keep our family in your thoughts as we navigate this difficult time" he said.
Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai also shared his tribute to Wojcicki in a post on X, previously Twitter, on August 10.
"Unbelievably saddened by the loss of my dear friend @SusanWojcicki after two years of living with cancer. She is as core to the history of Google as anyone, and it’s hard to imagine the world without her. She was an incredible person, leader and friend who had a tremendous impact on the world and I’m one of countless Googlers who is better for knowing her. We will miss her dearly. Our thoughts with her family. RIP Susan," he wrote.
In a note to employees later in the day, Pichai also recounted Wojcicki's kindness to him as a prospective "Noogler" (a term used to refer to new employees at Google) 20 years ago.
"During my Google interview she took me out for an ice cream and a walk around campus. I was sold - on Google and Susan" he said.
The Alphabet chief also said the company will soon share more information on how the tech giant "will celebrate her incredible life".
Wojcicki had stepped down as YouTube CEO in February 2023 after nine years at the helm. At the time, Wojcicki said she would focus on "family, health, and personal projects I'm passionate about."
In the note to employees, Pichai said that Wojcicki "devoted herself to making the world better through her philanthropy, including supporting research for the disease that ultimately took her life"
Following Wojcicki's departure, Neal Mohan, then chief product officer of the Google-owned video platform, became the new head of YouTube.
In a post on Meta's Threads on August 10, Mohan said he had the "good fortune of meeting Susan 17 years ago when she was the architect of the DoubleClick acquisition. Her legacy lives on in everything she touched at Google and YouTube"
"I am forever grateful for her friendship, guidance and impact on my life. I will miss her tremendously. My heart goes out to her family and loved ones" he said.
Crucial to Google's founding years
Wojcicki was vital to the founding of Google (now Alphabet), having rented garage space in her parent's house to co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to start the company in 1998. She joined the tech giant as its 16th employee and its first marketing executive in 1999, staying with the company for 25 years.
During her stint, Wojcicki oversaw the development of multiple advertising and measurement platform products, including AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics. She also led the initial development of several consumer products including Google Images, Google Books, and (now-defunct) Google Video. She was named as YouTube CEO in 2014.
"As one of the earliest Googlers -- and the first to take maternity leave -- Susan used her position to build a better workplace for everyone. And in the years that followed, her advocacy around parental leave set a new standard for businesses everywhere" Pichai said in the note to employees.
"Susan was also deeply passionate about education. She realized early on that YouTube could be a learning platform for the world and championed "edutubers" -- especially those who extended the reach of STEM education to underserved communities" he added.
Wojcicki's sister Anne Wojcicki, who co-founded personal genomics company 23andMe, was married to Brin until their divorce in 2015. Wojcicki's other sister Janet Wojcicki was an anthropologist and epidemiologist.
She is the daughter of Esther Wojcicki, an American journalist and educator, and Stanley Wojcicki, a Polish physics professor emeritus at Stanford University.
The former YouTube CEO married Troper, the product lead for Google Consumer Trust's User Data team, in 1998. They had five children.
Wojcicki's demise is the second tragedy in the family, after her oldest son 19-year-old Marco Troper died of a reported drug overdose at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a freshman.
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