Susan Wojcicki, former CEO of YouTube and one of Google’s first employees, has died at the age of 56 after two years of living with cancer.
Her husband, Dennis Troper, announced the news of her death on Friday.
In a Facebook post, he said: “It is with profound sadness that I share the news of the passing of Susan Wojcicki. My beloved wife of 26 years and mother of our five children left us today after two years of living with non-small cell lung cancer.”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday: “I am incredibly saddened by the loss of my dear friend Susan Wojcicki after two years of living with cancer. She is as central to the Google story as anyone else, and it’s hard to imagine the world without her.”
Wojcicki, one of the most prominent women in tech, will step down from her role at YouTube in 2023, a position she held for nine years, saying she wanted to “start a new chapter focused on my family, my health and personal projects that I am passionate about.”
“It would be one of the best decisions of my life,” Wojcicki wrote when she announced her departure.
She was previously senior vice president of advertising products at Google and became CEO of YouTube in 2014. Prior to Google, Wojcicki worked at Intel and Bain & Company.