Susan Wojcicki, Former YouTube CEO and Influential Google Exec, Dies at 56

Susan Wojcicki, who served as CEO of YouTube for nine years during a period of massive growth for the video platform and was one of Google’s first hires, died on Friday, Aug. 9. She was 56.

Wojcicki’s death after a two-year fight with cancer was announced by her husband, Dennis Troper, in a public post Friday evening on Facebook.

“It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki passing. 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 wrote in the post. “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.”

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, in a tribute posted on X said, “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.” Pichai continued, “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.”

Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 as the 16th employee, becoming the search engine’s first marketing exec. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin initially ran the company out of her garage in Menlo Park, Calif. Among her other accomplishments, she cut the company’s first deals to license search technology and led the initial development of Google’s image search.

In February 2014, Wojcicki was named YouTube’s CEO. Google’s appointment of Wojcicki, one of the company’s most senior execs, reflected how important the video platform had become to its advertising business. She stepped down as CEO of YouTube in February 2023, while remaining an adviser to the company.

Neal Mohan, who succeeded Wojcicki as YouTube CEO, said he’d had “the good fortune of meeting Susan 17 years ago when when she was the architect of the DoubleClick acquisition,” the ad-tech company where he had been an executive. “Her legacy lives on in everything she touched @google and @youtube,” Mohan wrote on X. “I am forever grateful for her friendship and guidance. I will miss her tremendously. My heart goes out to her family and loved ones.”

In her multiple stints at Google, Wojcicki had overseen product management of AdSense, Google Book Search and Google Video as well as the syndication of the company’s products. Prior to Google, she worked at Intel, Bain & Co. and R.B. Webber & Co.