Susan Wojcicki, who has served as CEO of YouTube for the past nine years, has decided to step down from her position.
She wrote on her blog that she had “chosen to start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.”
Wojcicki explained that she felt confident leaving her position because YouTube already had a stellar leadership team in place.
When Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded the company in her garage in Silicon Valley in 1998, Wojcicki got involved and a year later joined the team as the first marketing manager.
Neal Mohan, the platform’s chief product officer, will take over as CEO of YouTube.
Wojcicki applauded Mr. Mohan’s leadership of YouTube Music, Premium, and Shorts, as well as his efforts launching YouTube TV.
In the “near term,” Wojcicki said, she will keep working at YouTube to “support Neal and help with the transition.”
Wojcicki announced she would “take on an advisory position across Google and Alphabet” at the request of Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
Because of this, she added, “I will be able to draw on my various experiences from the past to provide advice and direction across Google and the portfolio of Alphabet firms.”
When Wojcicki YouTube in 2014, the platform had just passed the one billion user mark for the first time.
There are currently 2.5 billion users using it globally.
Wojcicki has worked for Google for almost 25 years, and she was the company’s 16th employee when it was founded.
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