Former YouTube executive Susan Wojcicki is dead
Multiple times, Susan Wojcicki played a crucial role in Google's history. She was involved in building the ad system and advocated for the acquisition of YouTube. Google CEO Pichai now remembers the late manager with an anecdote about his own job interview.
Longtime YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who played a key role in Google's history on multiple occasions, has passed away at the age of 56. She had been living with lung cancer for two years, as Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced in an email to employees. Wojcicki stepped down from her role at the video platform last year to focus on her health.
The former Intel manager rented her garage to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. She was one of the first employees of the company and was involved in building the ad system that generates Google's revenue. She drove the acquisition of DoubleClick, which solidified Google's leading position in the US online advertising market.
A few years after the company's founding, Wojcicki oversaw Google's own video service and recommended the $1.65 billion acquisition of startup YouTube in 2006. Under Google's leadership, YouTube became the world's largest video platform. Wojcicki then took over as CEO of YouTube in 2014.
In his email, Pichai also recalled how Wojcicki lightened the mood during his job interview two decades ago by buying him an ice cream and taking him on a tour of the Google campus.
Despite her role in driving Google's online advertising market and the acquisition of YouTube, technology groups outside of the company often overlooked Susan Wojcicki's contributions. As the former CEO of YouTube, Wojcicki stood out among other influential technology group leaders, transforming the video platform into a global powerhouse.
