Madrid.- La former CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, a key figure in the founding of Google, has died at the age of 56 after being diagnosed with lung cancer two years ago. The news was confirmed by her husband and father of her five children, Dennis Troper, through a social media platform.
“The loss of Susan is a devastating blow to all of us who had the privilege of knowing and loving her, to the thousands of ‘googlers’ she guided for years, and to the millions of people around the world who admired and benefited from the impact of her incredible creations on Google, YouTube, and beyond,” declared Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, in a statement.
Wojcicki will be remembered for her crucial role in the early days of the tech giant Google, initiated in September 1998 as a research project by two Stanford University (US) doctoral students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The duo began developing the search engine in the garage of a friend, Wojcicki herself, in Menlo Park (California). From that moment on, she maintained her connection with the company, rising to senior vice president of advertising and commerce, until she reached the executive director of YouTube, part of the same group.
In February 2023, she announced her departure from this position, after nine years, to “start a new chapter” focused on her family and personal projects that she was passionate about.
In a message to her team, the Google CEO highlighted Wojcicki’s career.
“From the garage that Larry and Sergey rented, passing through leading teams in consumer products and developing our ‘ads’ business until becoming the CEO of YouTube, one of the most significant platforms globally. It’s inspiring,” he noted.
But Wojcicki “didn’t stop there”. As the first ‘googler’ to take maternity leave, “she used her position to cultivate a better work environment for everyone”.
She also had a “deep passion” for education, and from the beginning recognized the potential of YouTube as “a global educational platform and support for ‘edutubers’ (educational content creators in audiovisual format)”.
“We maintain constant communication with Susan’s family, including her husband and also colleague ‘googler’, Dennis,” Pichai concludes.
credits of the images of this post: Deultimominuto.net
