Susan Wojcicki: Former YouTube boss dies at just 56 years old

Shock in the tech world: Susan Wojcicki (56), long-time YouTube boss and key figure in Google's history, has died after a two-year battle with lung cancer.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai shared the sad news in an email to employees.

Back in February 2023, she resigned as YouTube CEO and left the company to devote herself to a new phase of her life. Today we know the reasons for the sudden end of her Google career. Even then, she said she wanted to focus on her health.

The former Intel manager rented her garage to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 and was one of the company's first employees. She played a key role in setting up the advertising system that Google uses to make money and is considered the driving force behind the purchase of DoubleClick, which cemented Google's leading position in the online advertising market in the USA.

Wojcicki later oversaw Google's own video service and recommended the $1.65 billion acquisition of the start-up YouTube in 2006. Under the Internet company's leadership, YouTube became the world's largest video platform. Wojcicki then took over the leadership of YouTube in 2014.

In his email, Pichai also recalled Wojcicki's warm-hearted nature: At his job interview two decades ago, she lightened the mood by buying him an ice cream and taking him on a tour of the Google premises.

Her son died just six months ago

Wojcicki was a mother of five children, and her life took a tragic turn, even beyond her serious cancer: her son Marco Troper was found dead in February of this year in a dormitory at the prestigious University of California at Berkeley. The cause of death was attributed to a drug overdose. Troper was only 19 years old.