Tragedy has again struck a famous Silicon Valley family. Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has passed away, according to social media posts by her husband, Dennis Troper, and by Google CEO Sundar Pichai. She was 56.
Wrote Troper on Facebook earlier Friday night, “It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki passing. 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.”
“Susan was not just my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many. Her impact on our family and the world was immeasurable. We are heartbroken, but grateful for the time we had with her. Please keep our family in your thoughts as we navigate this difficult time.”
Pichai also sent a note to Google employees late Friday.
“By now you may have heard the news that Susan Wojcicki has passed away after two years of living with lung cancer. Even as I write this it feels impossible to me that it’s true. Susan was one of the most active and vibrant people I have ever met,” the note said.
Non-small cell lung cancer is one of two primary types of lung cancer and the most common kind, according to the Yale School of Medicine. Because its symptoms are often mistaken for common illnesses, 80 percent of people diagnosed with the condition have already progressed to advanced stages, according to a fact sheet associated with the university.
Wojcicki’s passing comes on the heels of another heart-breaking loss for her family in February of this year, when their 19-year-old son, Marco Troper, died of an accidental overdose in his dorm room at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a freshman.
Wojcicki rose to fame as the CEO of YouTube, a role she held for nine years before stepping down in early 2023, saying in a blog post at the time that she had “decided to start a new chapter focused on my family, health and personal projects I’m passionate about.”
Wojcicki was among the first 20 employees of Google, which went on to acquire YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion — what seemed like an astronomical amount at the time. She famously became involved with the company after renting the garage of her Menlo Park, Calif., home to friends Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were Ph.D. students at Stanford at the time. (Google was restructured in 2015, at which point Alphabet became its parent company.)
According to reports over the years, it was after observing the early traction of YouTube that Wojcicki herself — then a marketing manager at Google — proposed to Page and Brin that Google buy the video streaming platform.
Under her leadership, YouTube became a multibillion dollar cash generator for Google. In 2023, YouTube posted $8.1 billion in revenue through ad sales — nearly 10% of Alphabet’s total revenue.
Wojcicki’s family has deep ties to Silicon Valley and to the Bay Area more broadly. One of her sisters is 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki. Another sister, Janet, is a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Meanwhile, their mother Esther Wojcicki, is a renowned educator who has written extensively on how to raise successful children.
Here is the full memo Pichai sent to Google employees:
Googlers,
By now you may have heard the news that Susan Wojcicki has passed away after two years of living with lung cancer. Even as I write this it feels impossible to me that it’s true. Susan was one of the most active and vibrant people I have ever met. Her loss is devastating for all of us who know and love her, for the thousands of Googlers she led over the years, and for millions of people all over the world who looked up to her, benefited from her advocacy and leadership, and felt the impact of the incredible things she created at Google, YouTube, and beyond.
Susan’s journey, from the garage she rented to Larry and Sergey … to leading teams across consumer products and building our Ads business … to becoming the CEO of YouTube, one of the world’s most significant platforms, is inspiring by any measure. But she didn’t stop there. As one of the earliest Googlers — and the first to take maternity leave — Susan used her position to build a better workplace for everyone. And in the years that followed, her advocacy around parental leave set a new standard for businesses everywhere. Susan was also deeply passionate about education. She realized early on that YouTube could be a learning platform for the world and championed “edutubers” — especially those who extended the reach of STEM education to underserved communities.
Over the last two years, even as she dealt with great personal difficulties, Susan devoted herself to making the world better through her philanthropy, including supporting research for the disease that ultimately took her life. I know that was very meaningful to her and I’m so glad she took the time to do it.
Susan always put others first, both in her values and in the day to day. I’ll never forget her kindness to me as a prospective “Noogler” 20 years ago. During my Google interview she took me out for an ice cream and a walk around campus. I was sold – on Google and Susan.
I feel so fortunate to have spent so many years working with Susan closely, as I’m sure many of you do — she was absolutely loved by her teams here. Her time on earth was far too short, but she made every minute count.
We’re in close touch with Susan’s family, including her husband and fellow Googler, Dennis. We will share more soon about how we’re going to celebrate her incredible life. In the meantime, let’s honor Susan’s memory by continuing to build a Google she would be proud of.
Credit: techcrunch.com
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