Susan Wojcicki, one in all Google’s earliest staff and the previous chief government of its video web site YouTube, has died aged 56.
Within the male-dominated tech business, Wojcicki grew to become one in all Silicon Valley’s most influential girls, serving to to create Google’s all-conquering promoting enterprise.
Her husband Dennis Troper introduced her demise on Fb. “It’s with profound unhappiness that I share the information of Susan Wojcicki passing,” he mentioned. “My beloved spouse of 26 years and mom to our 5 kids left us at the moment after two years of dwelling with non-small cell lung most cancers.”
He referred to as her “an excellent thoughts, a loving mom, and an expensive buddy to many”.
Sundar Pichai, chief government of Google mother or father Alphabet, mentioned in a submit on X that he was “unbelievably saddened”.
“She is as core to the historical past of Google as anybody, and it’s exhausting to think about the world with out her,” he mentioned. “She was an unbelievable individual, chief and buddy who had an amazing affect on the world.”
In a notice to Google staffers, Pichai mentioned Wojcicki “used her place to construct a greater office for everybody”, together with being the primary girl at Google to take maternity go away. “Her advocacy round parental go away set a brand new commonplace for companies in all places,” he wrote.
Tim Cook dinner, Apple chief government, mentioned in a submit on X that he was “saddened” to listen to of Wojcicki’s demise. “She was one in all Silicon Valley’s visionaries and she or he will probably be missed by so many,” he mentioned.
Throughout Google’s earliest days, its founders Larry Web page and Sergey Brin constructed the search engine whereas working in Wojcicki’s storage at her residence in Menlo Park. In 1999, she grew to become its sixteenth worker. Throughout her tenure overseeing its promoting enterprise, Google’s advert revenues grew from zero to greater than $50bn in 2013.
After being concerned in Google’s $1.65bn acquisition of YouTube in 2006, she grew to become the video website’s chief government in 2014. By the point she stepped down in February final 12 months, YouTube had grown to greater than 2.5bn month-to-month energetic customers and almost $30bn in annual advert revenues.
“Susan was a trailblazer within the business, an exemplary mom, and a cherished buddy,” mentioned Marc Benioff, chief government of Salesforce.com, the place she was a board member.
Throughout greater than 20 years at Google, Wojcicki wore “many hats”, as she put it when she left — together with serving to to create Google Picture Search and its AdSense promoting community earlier than turning into its senior vice-president of promoting and commerce.
At YouTube, she nurtured the event of the “creator economic system”, whereas additionally warding off controversies over its content material moderation and video-recommendation algorithm.
In an inner memo asserting her departure final 12 months, she wrote: “25 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 . . . I noticed the potential of what they have been constructing, which was extremely thrilling, and though the corporate had just a few customers and no income, I made a decision to affix the crew. It will be probably the greatest choices of my life.”
Particulars of her well being weren’t extensively identified. Simply final month, she joined the board of administrators at Planet Labs, a satellite tv for pc imaging and knowledge firm.
Earlier than Google, Wojcicki labored at chipmaker Intel and as a administration advisor. Her mom Esther Wojcicki is a journalist and her father Stanley Wojcicki, a famend Stanford physics professor, died final 12 months.
She has two sisters: Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder and chief government of biotech firm 23andMe, who was married to Brin till 2015, and Janet Wojcicki, a professor of paediatrics on the College of California, San Francisco.
Tragedy hit the household earlier this 12 months when Wojcicki’s 19-year-old son Marco Troper died. He was a scholar on the College of California, Berkeley.
