Susan Wojcicki, the former YouTube executive whose California garage was the birthplace of Google, has died. She is 56 years old.
Wojcicki’s husband, Google executive Dennis Troper, said on Facebook on Friday that the tech pioneer died after a two-year battle with non-small cell lung cancer.
“It is with deep sadness that I share the news of the passing of Susan Wojcicki,” Troper wrote on Facebook. “My beloved wife and mother of our five children spent two years living with non-small cell lung cancer. “Susan was not only my best friend and companion throughout my life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother and a dear friend to many. She was a wonderful addition to our family and the world. The impact is immeasurable. We are heartbroken but grateful for the time we had.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet pay tribute This is Wojcicki on X.
He wrote on Twitter: “I am incredibly saddened by the passing of my dear friend @SusanWojcicki after two years with cancer. She was as central to Google’s history as anyone and it’s hard to imagine a world without her “She was an incredible person, leader, and friend who made a huge impact on the world, and I am one of countless Googlers who knew her better because I knew her. We will miss her deeply. We lovingly remembered by her family.
In 1998, Wojcicki rented out her California garage to help pay her mortgage. She leased it to Stanford University students Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who set up shop and launched the search engine that eventually became Google. Brin was even married to Wojcicki’s sister, 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki, from 2007 to 2015.
In 1999, Wojcicki was four months pregnant with his first child and became the company’s 16th employee when he quit his stable job at Intel to join the startup Google. While many of her close friends and colleagues called the move crazy, Wojcicki later called it one of the best decisions of her life.
She quickly rose through the ranks to become senior vice president of advertising and commerce at Google, where she is credited with launching Google Images and Google Books. In 2006, after Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion, Wojcicki was appointed CEO of the platform.
Wojcicki attended Harvard University, where she studied history and literature. She later earned a master’s degree in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Wojcicki is survived by her husband and five children.
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