- Susan Wojcicki was one of Google’s first employees, eventually leading YouTube for almost a decade.
- She stepped down from the role in 2023. The next year, she died of cancer at the age of 56.
- Here’s a look at the life and death of Susan Wojcicki.
Most landlords only hope their renters pay on time, keep a tidy space, and don’t disturb the neighbors.
But Susan Wojcicki’s renters — Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin — offered up a bit more: the chance to become employee No. 16 in 1998 at a young search engine startup called Google.
Of course, it took more than this incredible circumstance for Wojcicki to rise in the ranks at Google. From expanding the company’s ad business to persuading its founders to purchase an up-and-coming video-sharing service called YouTube, Wojcicki played a vital role in Google becoming one of the world’s most valuable companies.
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She went on to serve as CEO of YouTube for nearly a decade before stepping down in 2023.
On August 9, 2024, Dennis Troper, her husband, posted on Facebook that Wojcicki had died of cancer: “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.”
Aside from her husband and their four living children, Wojcicki is survived by her mother, journalist and educator Esther Wojcicki; her sisters, Janet, an anthropologist and epidemiologist, and Anne, the cofounder and CEO of 23andMe.
Here’s a look at Wojcicki’s life and rise at Google, from employee No. 16 to YouTube’s chief.
