Former YouTube chief executive Susan Wojcicki, a tech pioneer who was one of Google’s earliest employees, has died after living with lung cancer for two years, according to her husband. She was 56.
Husband Dennis Troper said Wojcicki was “not just my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many”.
“It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki passing,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday.
“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 said her “impact on our family and the world was immeasurable”.
“We are heartbroken, but grateful for the time we had with her,” he said.
“Please keep our family in your thoughts as we navigate this difficult time.”
Wojcicki – who was one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley – had been involved with YouTube’s parent company Google from its earliest days, when its two founders worked out of her garage in California to build a search engine.
She later became Google’s 16th employee and had worked at the company for nearly 25 years.
Google chief executive Sundar Pichai expressed condolences in a post on X early on Saturday, saying Wojcicki was “core” to Google’s history.
“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,” he said.
Wojcicki had served as YouTube’s chief executive for nine years before announcing last year in a blog post that she would be “stepping back” from her leadership role to focus on her family, health and personal projects that she was passionate about, CNN previously reported.
She oversaw YouTube during the web’s pivotal transition toward social media, but also as online platforms came under increasing scrutiny for spreading misinformation, hate speech and other harmful content.
“I’m so proud of everything we’ve achieved,” Wojcicki wrote when announcing she was stepping down in 2023.
“It’s been exhilarating, meaningful, and all-consuming.”
