Susan Wojcicki

Susan Wojcicki
Born	Susan Diane Wojcicki 5 7, 1968
Birthplace	Santa Clara, California, U.S.
Died	Template:Death date and age Los Altos, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Business executive
Title	CEO of YouTube (2014–2023)
Known for	CEO of YouTube (2014–2023), early Google employee
Education	MBA, UCLA Anderson School of Management (1998)
Children	5
Awards	Time 100 (2015)

Susan Diane Wojcicki (Template:IPAc-en; July 5, 1968 – August 9, 2024) was an American business executive who served as the chief executive officer of YouTube from 2014 to 2023. One of the earliest employees of Google, Wojcicki played a foundational role in the company's growth — from renting out her garage in Menlo Park, California, to the company's co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998, to leading its advertising and video businesses over a span of more than two decades. As Google's first marketing manager beginning in 1999, she oversaw the development of key revenue-generating products including Google AdSense and Google Video, and she was instrumental in recommending that Google acquire YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Under her leadership as CEO, YouTube grew into one of the world's largest media platforms, launching products such as YouTube Kids, YouTube Music, YouTube Gaming, and YouTube Premium. Wojcicki stepped down as CEO in February 2023 and was succeeded by Neal Mohan. She died on August 9, 2024, at the age of 56, after living with lung cancer for two years.

Early Life

Susan Diane Wojcicki was born on July 5, 1968, in Santa Clara, California. She grew up on the campus of Stanford University, where her father, Stanley Wojcicki, was a professor of physics. Her mother, Esther Wojcicki, was an educator and journalist who became known for her work as a high school journalism teacher at Palo Alto High School.

Wojcicki was raised alongside her two sisters in a household that placed significant emphasis on education. Her sister Janet Wojcicki became an anthropologist and epidemiologist, and her sister Anne Wojcicki co-founded the personal genomics company 23andMe and served as its CEO. Esther Wojcicki later attributed her daughters' professional achievements in part to a parenting philosophy she described as the "TRICK" method — an acronym for trust, respect, independence, collaboration, and kindness — which emphasized allowing children to experience failure and learn from it.

Stanley Wojcicki was of Polish descent, and Esther Wojcicki was of Russian Jewish heritage. The family's academic environment at Stanford provided the children with exposure to intellectual inquiry from a young age. Susan Wojcicki grew up on the Stanford campus during a period of significant growth in Silicon Valley, an environment that would later shape her career trajectory in the technology industry.

Education

Wojcicki attended Harvard University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and literature in 1990. She subsequently pursued graduate studies, earning a Master of Science degree in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Wojcicki later enrolled at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where she completed her Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 1998. UCLA Anderson later recognized Wojcicki as one of its "100 Inspirational Alumni." In 2025, UCLA Anderson honored her legacy by establishing a data science chair in her name, recognizing her contributions to the technology industry and her status as one of the school's most prominent graduates.

Career

Early career at Google

Wojcicki's connection to Google began before the company was formally incorporated. In 1998, while she was completing her MBA at UCLA Anderson, she and her husband purchased a house in Menlo Park, California. To help cover the mortgage, she rented out the garage to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were then Stanford graduate students developing the search engine that would become Google. The garage at 232 Santa Margarita Avenue became the site where much of Google's early work was conducted, and it has since become a landmark in Silicon Valley history.

In 1999, Wojcicki joined Google as its first marketing manager, becoming one of the company's earliest employees. In her resignation letter posted on the YouTube blog in February 2023, Wojcicki reflected on this decision, writing that "twenty-five years ago I made the decision to" join the company.

At Google, Wojcicki took on increasing responsibility in the company's advertising business. She played a central role in the development of several of Google's most significant revenue-generating products, including Google AdSense, which allowed website publishers to serve targeted advertisements and share in the resulting revenue. She also oversaw the development of Google Video, the company's original online video platform, and Google Analytics, the web analytics service.

YouTube acquisition

One of Wojcicki's most consequential decisions at Google was her advocacy for the acquisition of YouTube. After observing the rapid growth and popularity of the video-sharing platform, which had been founded in 2005, she recommended that Google purchase it. The acquisition was completed in October 2006 for $1.65 billion in stock, a price that was considered substantial at the time but which proved to be a pivotal investment for Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc.

CEO of YouTube (2014–2023)

In February 2014, Wojcicki was appointed CEO of YouTube, succeeding Salar Kamangar. The appointment marked a new chapter for the platform, as Wojcicki brought to the role her extensive experience in Google's advertising operations and her understanding of online video's commercial potential.

During her nine-year tenure as CEO, Wojcicki oversaw a period of significant expansion for YouTube, both in terms of its user base and its product offerings. Under her leadership, the platform launched several major new products and services:

YouTube Kids was launched in February 2015 as a standalone application designed to provide a safer viewing experience for children. The app offered content filtering and parental controls aimed at making the platform more accessible to younger audiences.

YouTube Gaming was introduced in August 2015 as a dedicated platform for video game content, live streaming, and gaming-related communities, positioning YouTube to compete more directly with platforms such as Twitch.

YouTube Music launched in November 2015 as a music-focused streaming application that offered background and offline playback capabilities, representing YouTube's effort to build a dedicated music streaming service.

YouTube Red (later rebranded as YouTube Premium) was introduced in October 2015 as a paid subscription service priced at $9.99 per month, offering an ad-free viewing experience along with access to original content and offline video downloads.

Content moderation and advertiser concerns

Wojcicki's tenure as CEO was also marked by significant challenges related to content moderation, brand safety, and the responsibilities of operating one of the world's largest platforms for user-generated content.

In early 2017, YouTube faced a major advertising crisis when investigations revealed that advertisements from major brands were appearing alongside extremist, hateful, and otherwise objectionable content on the platform. Multiple large advertisers, including government agencies and multinational corporations, pulled their advertising from YouTube in response. The BBC reported on the issue, highlighting the extent of the brand safety concerns that had emerged on the platform. YouTube responded by tightening its advertising policies and investing in technology and human review processes to better screen content.

In January 2018, Wojcicki faced further scrutiny following the controversy surrounding YouTuber Logan Paul, who had posted a video showing a dead body in Japan's Aokigahara forest. The incident raised questions about YouTube's content policies and the platform's relationship with its most prominent creators. Wojcicki addressed the situation publicly, acknowledging that YouTube's response had been too slow.

These challenges reflected broader questions facing social media and content platforms during this period about balancing free expression, creator empowerment, advertiser interests, and public safety.

Advocacy for diversity and gender equity

During her time as CEO, Wojcicki spoke publicly about issues of gender diversity and equity in the technology industry. In a March 2017 essay published in Vanity Fair, she addressed the culture of Silicon Valley's technology sector and the challenges facing women in the industry. As one of the most senior women in the technology industry, her public commentary on these topics drew attention to workplace culture issues within Silicon Valley.

Resignation

On February 16, 2023, Wojcicki announced her resignation as CEO of YouTube in a letter posted to the YouTube blog and sent to employees. In the letter, she stated that she was stepping down to "start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I'm passionate about." She was succeeded by Neal Mohan, who had served as YouTube's chief product officer. Wojcicki had served as CEO for approximately nine years, overseeing a period during which YouTube grew from a large video platform into a central component of Alphabet Inc.'s business operations and global media landscape.

Personal Life

Wojcicki married Dennis Troper in November 1998 at a ceremony in Palo Alto, California. The couple had five children together.

After stepping down from YouTube in February 2023, Wojcicki was diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer. Her diagnosis was described as unexpected, as she did not fit the typical profile associated with the disease. Following her diagnosis, Wojcicki dedicated herself to researching the disease and seeking to understand its causes. According to Scientific American, she committed herself to fighting the cancer and advocating for greater understanding of lung cancer in non-smokers.

Susan Wojcicki died on August 9, 2024, in Los Altos, California, at the age of 56, after living with lung cancer for approximately two years. Her death was announced by Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other technology industry figures who paid tribute to her contributions.

Recognition

Wojcicki received numerous forms of recognition during her career. In 2015, she was named to the Time 100, Time magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Forbes consistently included Wojcicki in its rankings of influential business leaders, and her estimated net worth was reported at $765 million in 2022.

UCLA Anderson School of Management recognized Wojcicki as one of its "100 Inspirational Alumni" during her lifetime. Following her death, the school honored her legacy in June 2025 by establishing the Susan Wojcicki Data Science Chair, a named academic position recognizing her contributions to the technology industry and her status as one of the school's most notable graduates.

Harvard University also recognized Wojcicki's legacy. She had been a supporter of the university after graduating in 1990, and the Harvard Alumni organization highlighted her contributions both to technology and to the university community following her death.

Legacy

Susan Wojcicki's career spanned the full arc of the modern internet era. From her role as one of Google's first employees to her nine years leading YouTube, she was present at and contributed to many of the defining developments in the technology industry from the late 1990s through the early 2020s. The garage she rented to Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 became an origin story not only for Google but, symbolically, for the broader Silicon Valley startup culture.

Her recommendation that Google acquire YouTube in 2006 proved to be one of the most consequential corporate decisions in the technology sector. The $1.65 billion acquisition transformed YouTube from an independent startup into a central pillar of what became Alphabet Inc., and the platform grew under Wojcicki's later leadership as CEO into one of the most-visited websites in the world.

As CEO, Wojcicki navigated YouTube through a complex period that included the platform's expansion into subscription services, children's content, music streaming, and gaming, while simultaneously confronting the emerging challenges of content moderation, algorithmic recommendation, and brand safety that defined the broader social media landscape during this era.

Following her death in August 2024, tributes from across the technology industry and beyond acknowledged her role in shaping the digital media landscape. CNN described her as "a tech pioneer who was one of Google's earliest employees." Institutions including UCLA Anderson and Harvard University took steps to memorialize her contributions through academic programs and commemorations.

Her advocacy for research into lung cancer in non-smokers, undertaken after her own diagnosis, added a dimension to her public legacy beyond the technology industry. Scientific American documented her efforts to understand the disease and contribute to awareness about lung cancer among individuals without traditional risk factors.