YouTube Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki steps down from her role after nine years of service handling the video division of Alphabet's Google. She planned to focus on a new chapter with her family, health, and personal projects.
(Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - MAY 17: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki speaks during the opening keynote address at the Google I/O 2017 Conference at Shoreline Amphitheater on May 17, 2017 in Mountain View, California. Google CEO Sundar Pichai delivered the opening keynote address to kick off the three-day Google I/O 2017 Conference.
Leaving YouTube
Wojcicki described her decision to join YouTube nine years ago as one of her best decisions in life. According to a released statement, she handled so many roles in the company before becoming the CEO of YouTube.
This includes managing marketing, co-creating Google Images Search, leading Google's first Video and Book search, creating AdSense, working on the YouTube and DoubleClick acquisitions, and serving as SVP of Ads.
"I took on each challenge that came my way because it had a mission that benefited so many people's lives around the world: finding information, telling stories, and supporting creators, artists, and small businesses. I'm so proud of everything we've achieved," she stated.
Wojcicki noted that this would be the right time to leave the company as she felt that it already had an incredible leadership team in place. This was her main goal back when she joined YouTube nine years ago.
Looking Back
Not only is she known as Google's longest-serving employee, but Wojcicki is also known as one of the highest-profile female executives in Silicon Valley. As per Bloomberg's report, she joined as an early marketing manager and became one of the leaders in Google's advertising business before joining YouTube in 2014.
The former CEO was also part of Google's monumental acquisitions in 2006 when the company acquired Youtube. She spent years running display ads operation for Google and turned it into a secondary revenue stream behind search and expanding Google into different sectors.
Wojcicki gained a lot of friends during her stay in the company. In fact, she was also known as being close to the founders of Alphabet, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. This gave her an opportunity to work with the growing technology giant.
Shakti Capital founder and her former colleague Keval Desai stated, "She was essentially a short-circuit to the founders. She's a person who had a bigger impact than any of her titles would suggest."
Replacing Wojcicki
CNBC reported that Neal Mohan would replace her as the new senior vice president and the new head of YouTube. Wojcicki spent 15 years of her career working with Mohan, which will be easy for her to pass the role.
Mohan became the Chief Product Officer of Youtube in 2015, where he played pivotal roles in launching some of the platform's biggest products like YouYube TV, YouTube Music, YouTube Premium, and YouTube Shorts. He also led the company's Trust and Safety team to ensure that YouTube lives up to its responsibility as a global platform.
"With all we're doing across Shorts, streaming, and subscriptions, together with the promises of AI, YouTube's most exciting opportunities are ahead, and Neal is the right person to lead us," the former executive happily described.
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