The technology company YouTube lost its CEO, Susan Wojcicki. The director decided to step down from her position after 25 years at the helm of the technology company because, according to a press release, she wants to devote herself to her personal projects:
Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I'm passionate about.
Today, after nearly 25 years at @Google, I’m stepping back to start a new chapter. I'm inspired every day by creators around the world who bring people together on @YouTube. It's been an honor to have a front row seat to this incredible community. https://t.co/063sYalPzX
— Susan Wojcicki (@SusanWojcicki) February 16, 2023
The video platform has already lined up her successor: Neal Mohan. The new CEO will have the support of his predecessor who will stay on to help with the transition. This will involve working with YouTube teams, training workers and meeting with creators.
In addition, she will continue to stay involved in Big Tech. She will work as an advisor to both Google and its parent company. She announced that was able to come to an agreement with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai:
In the longer term, I’ve agreed with Sundar to take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet. This will allow me to call on my different experiences over the years to offer counsel and guidance across Google and the portfolio of Alphabet companies.
Wojcicki’s early days at Google
Susan Wojcicki has been associated with Google from almost the beginning. As she explained in the release, she joined a "a couple of Stanford graduate students who were building a new search engine." They were Larry and Sergey, the creators of Google. That was the beginning of her career. She remembers that time fondly:
I saw the potential of what they were building, which was incredibly exciting, and although the company had only a few users and no revenue, I decided to join the team.
Business Insider España reported that the entrepreneur rented her garage to Google's co-founders when the search engine was still just an idea. Once the company took off, she co-created Google's image search engine, designed AdSense and, most importantly, proposed that the creators engine acquire YouTube. The purchase was closed in 2006. Wojcicki became the video platform's CEO in 2014.
During her time as CEO, YouTube innovated and launched products such as YouTube Gaming, YouTube Music, YouTube Premium, YouTube Shorts and YouTube TV. In addition, she also worked on coming up with new policies to deal with hate content and to combat fake news.
