Susan Wojcicki, who served as CEO of YouTube who worked for nine years and was one of Google’s first employees, died Friday at age 56 after a battle with cancer, her family announced.
Wojcicki’s husband, Dennis Troper, announced her death in a Facebook post Friday evening.
“It is with deep sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki’s passing. My beloved wife of 26 years and mother of our five children left us today after living for 2 years with non-small cell lung cancer,” Troper wrote in the post. “Susan was not only my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to so many. Her impact on our family and the world was immeasurable.”
“We are saddened, but grateful for the time we had with her. Please keep our family in our thoughts as we navigate this difficult time,” he added.
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Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 as the company’s 16th employee and became the search engine’s first marketing manager. She helped launch Google Video and oversaw the company’s 2006 purchase of YouTube, a then-fledgling rival video-uploading site, Variety reported.
She was appointed CEO of YouTube in 2014 and led the video platform through immense growth. She stepped down in February 2023 to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health and personal projects.”
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan paid tribute to his predecessor in a social media post.
“I was fortunate enough to meet Susan 17 years ago…I am forever grateful for her friendship and guidance,” Mohan wrote in part. “I am forever grateful for her friendship and guidance. I will miss her dearly. My heart goes out to her family and loved ones.”
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a message that he was “incredibly saddened by the loss” of Wojcicki.
“She is as important to Google’s history as anyone, and it’s hard to imagine the world without her,” Pichai wrote. “She was an incredible person, leader, and friend who had an enormous impact on the world, and I am one of countless Googlers better off for knowing her. We will miss her dearly. Our thoughts are with her family. RIP Susan.”
Wojcicki was born on July 5, 1989, in Santa Clara, California. Her father, Stanley Wojcicki, was a physics professor at Stanford and her mother, Esther Wojcicki, was a teacher. She attended Harvard University and received a master’s degree in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She received an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Wojcicki is survived by her husband and four children. Her son Marco, 19, died of a drug overdose at UC Berkeley in February.
