Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki dies of lung cancer, was just 56 years old

Wojcicki was one of Silicon Valley's most prominent women — she joined YouTube's parent company Google in its early days when its two founders began working to build a search engine out of their garage in California. She later became Google's 16th employee and worked at the company for nearly 25 years.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai mourned Wojcicki in a post on X early Saturday, saying Wojcicki was central to Google's history.

"She was a wonderful person, leader, and friend who had a tremendous impact on the world, and I am one of the countless Googlers who knew her intimately," Pichai said.

Wojcicki served as YouTube's CEO for nine years before announcing her exit in a blog post last year, according to a CNN report. She said in a blog post that she was "stepping back" from the leadership role to focus on her family, health, and personal projects.

Susan Wojcicki successfully led YouTube at a time when the online platform came under increasing scrutiny after allegations of spreading misinformation, hate speech, and other harmful content.