A Facebook post made on Friday, Aug. 9, announced that Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has died at the age of 56 after battling with cancer.
The post was made by Wojcicki’s husband, Dennis Troper, who revealed the cause of her death. “It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki passing,” he said. “My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after two years of living with non-small cell lung cancer.”
Susan Wojcicki was one of Google’s first employees since the company was founded in 1998 in her house, which she rented to its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. After previously working at Intel and Bain & Company, she then officially joined Google as its first marketing manager in 1999. She was previously a senior vice president for advertising products at the company.
Wojcicki started her last known role as YouTube’s CEO in 2014, which helped greatly in earning her the reputation of being one of the most prominent and powerful women in tech and advertising. In her time as the CEO, she introduced several features and changes to the platform, including subscription offerings for music and original video content. YouTube also saw several content moderation changes, such as the notable removal of the visible count for the dislike button on videos.
Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, commented on her death in a post on X on Saturday, Aug. 10, noting how important she was at the company. “Unbelievably saddened by the loss of my dear friend Susan Wojcicki 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.”
Wojcicki stepped down from her role at YouTube in 2023 after nine years at the company. She announced that she would be taking the time to focus on her “family, health, and personal projects.” The tragic death of Wojcicki’s son, Marco, a 19-year-old freshman at Berkeley, was announced in February, reportedly due to a drug overdose.
