Tragedy has again beset a prominent Silicon Valley family. Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO of YouTube, has passed away, according to reports from her husband, Dennis Troper, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai via their respective social media platforms. She was 56.
With profound disappointment, Troper shared the news of a passing on Facebook earlier this Friday evening. After 26 years of marriage and a lifetime of memories, my loving partner and mother to our five children departed this life following two years of battling non-small-cell lung cancer.
“Susan was more than just my closest friend and esteemed colleague – she was a brilliant mind, a devoted mother, and a treasured companion to countless individuals.” Her impact on our household and the world was immense and immeasurable. We are devastated by her passing, yet find solace in the cherished moments we shared together. May our home be a sanctuary for all of us as we face these challenging moments together.
Non-small cell lung cancer is one of the two main types of lung cancer, and it is the more prevalent form, according to the Yale School of Medicine.
In February of this year, Wojcicki and Troper experienced a devastating loss with the sudden passing of their 19-year-old son, Marco Troper, who tragically died from an unintentional overdose in his dorm room at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a freshman.
Susan Wojcicki’s professional trajectory was marked by her ascent to CEO of YouTube, a role she held for nearly a decade before announcing her departure in early 2023. In a blog post at the time, Wojcicki cited her desire to focus on her family, health, and personal passions outside of work, stating that she had “decided to start a new chapter.”
Susan Wojcicki was part of the original 20 employees at Google, which acquired YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion – a staggering sum at the time that hinted at the platform’s immense potential. When she rented a storage space at her Menlo Park, California, home to friends Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both Ph.D. students in computer science, she little knew that this chance encounter would set the stage for one of the most transformative moments in tech history. During that era, college students at Stanford. Was Google reorganized in 2015, elevating Alphabet to its parent company status.
Following the trajectory of YouTube’s early success, Susan Wojcicki, then a seasoned advertising and marketing professional at Google, approached Larry Page and Eric Brin with a proposal: she suggested that Google acquire the burgeoning video streaming platform.
Under her stewardship, YouTube flourished, evolving into a multi-billion-dollar revenue powerhouse for Google. In 2023, YouTube reported a substantial $8.1 billion in advertising revenue, accounting for approximately 10% of Alphabet’s total income.
Susan Wojcicki’s family has long-standing connections to Silicon Valley and the surrounding Bay Area. One of her sisters is actually 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki. Janet, another sister, serves as a respected professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Meanwhile, Esther Wojcicki, the mother of the siblings and a renowned educator, has authored numerous publications on cultivating successful children.
