On Thursday, February 16, one of the biggest names in the tech industry, Susan Wojcicki, announced that she will be stepping down as the chief executive officer (CEO) of YouTube after serving for nine years in the said position.
Wojcicki shared the significant development through a post titled “A personal update from Susan” on the YouTube Blog. Mentioning her association with Google for almost 25 years, the former head of the world’s largest video platform wrote:
Susan Wojcicki became the YouTube head in February 2014. However, even before becoming the CEO, Wojcicki has been a flagbearer and inspiration for women in the global tech industry for over two decades.
Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO of YouTube, had an estimated net worth of $765 million in 2022
According to Forbes, Susan Wojcicki’s estimated net worth in 2022 was $765 million, which was significantly lower than the 2021 figures, i.e., $815 million. Some outlets reported her monthly salary to be around $374,829 in 2022 while she was still the YouTube head.
Wojcicki has been with Google since the tech giant’s humble beginnings. After Google was incorporated in September 1998, the company’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin rented the garage of Wojcicki’s parents to set up an office in Menlo Park, California.
Wojcicki became a part of Google’s team in 1999 as the 16th member. She became the first manager of AdSense, one of Google’s seminal advertising products, in 2003. Subsequently, she became VP of the internet giant’s Advertising & Commerce to oversee its advertising and analytics products.
Interestingly, Susan also oversaw Google’s Google Video service when YouTube, a small start-up back then, started making its mark as one of the top competitors. Ultimately in 2006, Susan Wojcicki suggested the $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube. Additionally, in 2007, she also advised the $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick.
Although YouTube’s acquisition happened after Wojcicki’s advice, she didn’t join the video platform as CEO until 2014. Once she got appointed as the YouTube CEO, the company skyrocketed in terms of numbers. Reportedly, YouTube has over 2.5 billion monthly active users, while the platform receives over 500 hours of content in terms of uploads per minute.
After Susan Wojcicki announced her resignation from the position of YouTube’s CEO, netizens and creators were quick to react to the news as they congratulated and thanked her. Here are some of the reactions from Twitter:
However, now that Wojcicki has vacated the position of YouTube head, she also revealed Neal Mohan, the company’s current chief product officer, as her successor. Disclosing that Mohan had been her colleague for almost 15 years, Susan Wojcicki wrote in her post on the YouTube Blog:
In her post, Wojcicki said, “Neal will be a terrific leader for YouTube.” Susan will also continue to work with the YouTube team for some time to oversee a swift and smooth transition. Besides her cooperation with YouTube, Susan Wojcicki will take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet, as agreed with the tech giant’s CEO Sundar Pichai.
