Former YouTube Chief Executive Susan Wojcicki, who was one of the earliest and most influential employees at Google LLC, has passed away at the age of 56.

News of her death was announced by Google and parent Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Wojcicki’s husband Dennis Troper via social media posts late on Friday, and was met with sorrow from numerous individuals in the technology world who knew her.

Wojicki led YouTube for almost 10 years and is notable for being one of the few women to have held a CEO role at a big tech company in Silicon Valley.

In a post on Facebook, Troper wrote that “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.”

Pichai wrote on X that he was “unbelievably saddened” to hear of Wojcicki’s loss, before paying tribute to her in a more formal announcement on Google’s blog.

In the blog post, Pichai said Wojcicki was one of the “most active and vibrant people I have ever met,” and added that 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.”

Wojcicki became CEO of YouTube in 2014 before stepping down from that role in February 2023. She didn’t reveal she had cancer at the time, and said she would continue working with YouTube’s teams, coaching members and meeting with creators.

She had previously been involved with Google from its earliest days as a startup, notably renting out her garage space to the search engine’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin for $1,700 a month. At the time, Wojcicki herself was still working at Intel Corp., but it wasn’t long before she was convinced to leave that company and become Google’s 16th full-time employee.

She was credited with leading a number of its early consumer products. She helped to oversee and build Google’s advertising business and analytics tools for more than 14 years, playing an instrumental role in the creation of Google AdSense, which went on to become one of its most successful services.

She was also one of the strongest advocates of Google’s decision to acquire YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006.

“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,” Pichai said. “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.”

Wojcicki’s influence at the company was highlighted by a number of authors in recent years. In his 2022 book “Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination,” Patrick Keane, an early sales director at Google, wrote: “The founders trust Susan maybe more than anybody on the planet. You could never get Susan rattled, no matter how challenging the moment was.”

“When people couldn’t get him to see reason, she always could,” former Google director and early Silicon Valley workplace influencer Kim Scott wrote in her book as “a Larry whisperer,” referring to Page.

Wojcicki’s tenure as the CEO of YouTube saw that company grow to become the largest video platform in the world. It now boasts more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, and more than 500 hours of content are added to it every minute.

News of Wojcicki’s passing was followed by a flood of tributes on social media from dozens of well-known names in the tech industry.

Salesforce founder and CEO Mark Benioff described Wojcicki as a “dear friend,” a “trailblazer in the industry” and an “exemplary mother,” saying she had a “remarkable ability to lead with grace and vision, lighting up every interaction with her wisdom and warmth. Her kind heart, wise counsel, and philanthropic spirit touched countless lives.”

YouTube’s current CEO, Neal Mohan, said on X that he “had the good fortune of meeting Susan 17 years ago when she was the architect of the DoubleClick acquisition. Her legacy lives on in everything she touched at Google and YouTube.”

In a post on Facebook, former Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg paid tribute to Wojcicki as a mentor. “She taught me the business and helped me navigate a growing, fairly chaotic organization at the beginning of my career in tech,” she wrote. “As one of the most important women leaders in tech — the first to lead a major company — she was committed to expanding opportunities for women throughout Silicon Valley. I don’t believe my career would be what it is today without her unwavering support.”

“Saddened to hear of the passing of Susan Wojcicki,” wrote Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook. “She was one of Silicon Valley’s visionaries and she will be missed by so many. May she rest in peace.”

“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,” Pichai said in his blog post. “Her time on earth was far too short, but she made every minute count.”

Photo: YouTube