Susan Wojcicki, the head of YouTube, announced Thursday that she is stepping down after nearly a decade at the helm of the world’s most popular online video platform.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, rented their garage in 1998, the company’s first headquarters after their dorm room at nearby Stanford University. A year later, she became the fledgling company’s first marketing director.
“I have worn many hats”
An iconic Silicon Valley woman, she is listed as Google’s 16th employee, who became Alphabet in 2015 to distinguish the group’s main search engine and services from its other lesser-known activities, its “bets.”
“I’ve put many hats on,” she recalls in her blog post on YouTube, from co-creating Google’s image search engine to acquiring YouTube and DoubleClick and her role as vice president in charge of advertising.
After leading YouTube for nine years, another YouTube executive, Neal Mohan, will replace Susan Wojcicki later this year. At the helm of the service, she has faced many controversies, from the risks to the confidentiality of minor users of the site to the fight against misinformation, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This is an incredibly important time for Google (reminds me of the early days) with incredible products and innovations, immense opportunities and a healthy appetite for the impossible,” he said Thursday. His sister had married Sergey Brin, but the couple later divorced.
Source: BFM TV
