YouTube has been led by a CEO since its founding in 2005 and has retained this leadership model even after its acquisition by Google. The current CEO is Neal Mohan, who was appointed on February 16, 2023.
One of the earliest employees of Google, Susan Wojcicki has managed to have both a thriving family life and a wildly successful career. Wojcicki’s name is well known for her contributions to the tech space, and she’s in good company. Her sister Anne Wojcicki is the founder and CEO of the genetic testing company 23AndMe.
On February 16, 2023, Susan Wojcicki announced her departure from YouTube after leading the platform as its CEO for nine years. The “personal update from Susan” was initially sent to YouTube staff earlier that morning, but was publicly posted to the site a short while later. In the update, Wojcicki revealed her reasons for stepping down from YouTube, claiming that she wants to focus on her personal life and family, as well as a few passion projects in the interim.
In wake of her retirement as CEO of YouTube, many users of the video-sharing platform are curious to know more about her. TheVibely.com has gathered 10 facts about Susan Wojcicki including her fortune, after a two-and-a-half-decade Silicon Valley career, her achievement, her husband, siblings, and kids.
Profile Summary
| Celebrated Name: | Susan Wojcicki |
| Net Worth: | $765 million |
| Profession: | Former YouTube CEO Business manager and executive advisor |
| Real Name: | Susan Diane Wojcicki |
| Birthday: | July 5, 1968 |
| Birthplace: | Santa Clara County, Calif. |
| Education: | BA Harvard University MS University of California Santa Cruz MBA from UCLA |
| Spouse: | Dennis Troper |
| Children: | 5 |
| Parent: | Stanley Wojcicki (father) Esther Wojcicki (mother) |
| Relatives: | Anne Wojcicki (sister) Janet Wojcicki (sister) Janina Wójcicka Hoskins (grandmother) Franciszek Wójcicki (grandfather) |
Who is Susan Wojcicki?
Susan Wojcicki is a major name in Silicon Valley after having been the 16th employee ever at Google. She rented her garage space to Google co-founders in the early days, oversaw Google’s initial video service, and helped facilitate the purchase of YouTube. She’s been the CEO of YouTube since 2014 and is stepping down in 2023.
Who are Susan Wojcicki’s parents?
Susan Wojcicki (real name Susan Diane Wojcicki) was born in Santa Clara County, California, United States on July 5, 1968. This currently puts her age at age 54 years.
Susan was born to well-to-do parents. Former YouTube CEO Susan Diane Wojcicki was born to Esther Wojcicki, an American journalist, and Stanley Wojcicki, a Polish physics professor at Stanford University.
Her maternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. Her paternal grandfather, Franciszek Wójcicki, was a Polish politician who had been elected MP during the 1947 Polish legislative election. Her paternal grandmother, Janina Wójcicka Hoskins, was a Polish-American librarian at the Library of Congress and was responsible for building the largest collection of Polish material in the U.S.
Where did Susan Wojcicki attend school?
Wojcicki grew up on the Stanford campus, where mathematical scientist George Dantzig was her neighbor. She attended Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, and wrote for the school newspaper.
Her first business was selling “spice ropes” door-to-door at the age of eleven.
A humanities major in college, she took her first computer science class as a senior. She studied history and literature at Harvard University and graduated with honors in 1990. She originally planned on getting a Ph.D. in economics and pursuing a career in academia but changed her plans when she discovered an interest in technology. She also received her MS in economics in 1993 from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MBA in 1998 from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Susan has two sisters-siblings who are all successful in their careers; one is a doctor and the other a businesswoman.
She has two sisters: Janet Wojcicki, a doctor of anthropology and epidemiology, and Anne, an entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of 23andMe.
Anne Wojcicki is the co-founder and CEO of the popular at-home genetics testing company 23andMe. She earned a B.S. in biology from Yale University, spent a decade as a researcher and investment analyst, and then started her DNA testing company in 2006.
Wojcicki founded 23andMe in 2006 with co-founder Linda Avey. In 2008, TIME Magazine named the company’s Personal Genome Service as its Invention of the Year.
23andMe sells easy home saliva swab test kits and offers analysis to help users learn more about their family trees and predispositions to genetic disorders and diseases. Finding biological relatives is useful to those who have been adopted, but also to anyone who has unanswered questions about their ancestry.
Source: GETTY IMAGES
Who is Susan Wojcicki’s husband and does she have children?
Wojcicki is married to Dennis Troper, Google’s director of product management in Belmont, California. They tied the knot on August 23, 1998. They have five children.
On December 16, 2014, ahead of taking her fifth maternity leave, she wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal about the importance of paid maternity leave. She is often quoted talking about the importance of finding the balance between family and career. In addition to her American citizenship, Wojcicki holds Polish citizenship through her father.
How did Susan Wojcicki become wealthy?
Wojcicki worked for Intel Corporation in marketing early in her career. Then, she became an integral part of the future of technology when she rented out garage space to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google. In 1999, she became the company’s 16th employee and first marketing manager.
As Vox reported, Wojcicki worked to build Google’s online ad business and also ran Google Video, which was trying to compete with YouTube. Her eventual argument that Google should buy the video-sharing site instead won out.
SOURCE: GETTY
What is Susan Wojcicki’s net worth today?
Although estimates of Wojcicki’s net worth vary, it’s clear she’s made hundreds of millions of dollars at the helm of YouTube. CelebrityNetWorth puts her at $500 million, while in 2022 Forbes estimated her net worth to be $765 million.
The executive’s net worth estimates have risen since becoming YouTube’s CEO:
- 2015: $300 million
- 2016: $350 million
- 2017: $410 million
- 2018: $480 million
- 2019: $490 million
- 2020: $580 million
- 2021: $815 million
- 2022: $765 million
What has Susan Wojcicki accomplished at YouTube?
Wojcicki managed the $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube by Google in 2006. In 2014, she became the chief executive of YouTube, where her decisions were sometimes criticized. As Vox noted, she worked to increase accessibility to advertisers while managing video creators.
One criticism of Wojcicki and YouTube was that the site didn’t do enough to discourage hate speech or monitor dangerous content. Video creators also grew upset when rule changes made it harder for them to make a living on YouTube. She said in 2019, “We managed to upset everybody.”
SOURCE: GETTY
Her key projects and accomplishments include:
- YouTube reached 2 billion monthly users
- Developed 10 monetization forms for content creators
- Launched YouTube Premium and YouTube TV
- Launched YouTube Shorts
- In 2020 reached 80 million Music and Premium subscribers
Brin and Page said in a statement, “Susan has a unique place in Google history and has made the most incredible contribution to products used by people everywhere.”
SOURCE: YOUTUBE FACEBOOK
Why is Susan Wojcicki leaving YouTube?
Wojcicki announced her departure via a blog post, saying that it was time to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.” Wojcicki said she would support her successor during the transition and continue in an advisory role with Google and Alphabet.
She has named her second-in-command, Neil Mohan, to take over as CEO. Wojcicki said she has worked with Mohan for nearly 15 years. He has been Chief Product Officer since 2015.
What are some of the awards and recognition Wojcicki has received?
Wojcicki has been one of the few female CEOs in Silicon Valley. She has been recognized a number of times:
- 2022 Forbes Power Women (#23)
- 2022 Forbes America’s Self-Made Women (#32)
- 2021: “Free Expression Award” by Freedom Forum Institute
- 2019: Vanity Fair’s New Establishment list (#1)
- 2013: Adweek’s Top 50 Execs List (#1)
