Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki passed away on August 9. Her husband, Denis Troper, shared on social media that Wojcicki had been battling non-small cell lung cancer for two years.
“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,” Troper wrote on Facebook.
Wojcicki, a prominent face in the Silicon Valley, also helped start Google. She is survived by her husband, Troper, and her five children. Wojcicki was the CEO of YouTube from 2014 to 2023. In July 2023, she announced that she was taking a step back from her role as the head of YouTube to start a new chapter focused on “my family, health, and personal projects I'm passionate about.”
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She had been with Google since 1999, making her one of the company's longest-serving employees. Reflecting on her experience, she mentioned in a YouTube blog post that joining Google was one of the best decisions she ever made.
“Twenty-five years ago, I made the decision to join a couple of Stanford graduate students who were building a new search engine. Their names were Larry [Larry Page] and Sergey [Sergey Brin],” she wrote in a blog post. Larry Page and Sergey Brin are the co-founders of Google.
Her journey with Google began when she rented a garage to Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Over the years, she worked on consumer products and was the Senior Vice President of Ad Products at Google. Eventually, she took on the role of YouTube’s CEO.
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After her death, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan posted on X that YouTube had lost a colleague, mentor, and friend.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai also shared on X, calling her a key part of Google's history and saying 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,” posted Pichai.
Wojcicki was also a vocal advocate of maternity leave. She would always insist that the USA should provide maternity leave benefits and social security measures to new mothers. “Paid maternity leave is good for mothers, families, and business,” she wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.
Post her demise, Pichai wrote in a blog post, “Her advocacy around parental leave set a new standard for businesses everywhere.”
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