Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki dies at 56: Not-so-known facts about Google’s employee No. 16 |

Susan Wojcicki, a pioneering force in the tech industry who played pivotal roles in the founding of Google and the meteoric rise of YouTube, passed away on Friday at the age of 56. Her husband, Dennis Troper, announced her death in a social media post late Friday, August 9. “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,” he wrote.“Susan was not just my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many,” Troper said. She was one of the most respected female executives in the male-dominated tech industry.

Wojcicki joined Google in 1998 as their employee No. 16

Wojcicki’s journey with Google began in its earliest days when she rented out her garage to company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Page and Brin — both 25 at the time — continued to refine their search engine in Wojcicki’s garage for five months before moving Google into a more formal office and later persuaded their former landlord to come work for their company.

Wojcicki was named YouTube CEO in 2014

Wojcicki was named the CEO of YouTube in 2014.Wojcicki played a key role in Google’s creation and served nine years as YouTube’s CEO. She introduced new forms of ads and helped steer its growth by launching a streaming television service as viewers increasingly turned to the internet for shows and films. She also oversaw the company as it navigated concerns over child privacy, hate speech and the spread of misinformation, notably during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wojcicki left YouTube in 2023

A respected and admired leader, Wojcicki was instrumental in shaping the digital landscape. She served as YouTube’s CEO for nine years, stepping down in 2023 to focus on family and personal pursuits. Want to focus on “family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about,” she said at the time.
Worked with former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at Google
Former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who was vice president of Google’s sales and operations from 2001 to 2008 before moving to Facebook, said in a Facebook post that Wojcicki was formative in her tech career. “She taught me the business and helped me navigate a growing, fairly chaotic organization at the beginning of my career in tech,” Sandberg wrote. “She was the person I turned to for advice over and over again. And she was this person for so many others too.”
Wojcicki lost her teenage son early this year
Wojcicki’s 19-year-old son, Marco Troper, died in February this year at the UC Berkeley campus where he resided as a freshman student.
(With agency inputs)