Susan Wojcicki, the previous CEO of YouTube and one of the vital influential feminine executives in Silicon Valley, died on Friday after two years of dwelling with lung most cancers, the corporate introduced.
Final yr, she stepped down from her function after greater than twenty years main varied components of Google and its mother or father firm Alphabet.
“Even as I write this it feels impossible to me that it’s true,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a observe to staffers on Friday that was printed on the corporate web site.
“Her loss is devastating for all of us who know and love her, for the thousands of Googlers she led over the years, and for millions of people all over the world who looked up to her, benefited from her advocacy and leadership, and felt the impact of the incredible things she created at Google, YouTube, and beyond.”
Wojcicki was a key determine at Google from the corporate’s earliest days, when she rented her Palo Alto storage to founders Larry Web page and Sergey Brin.
In 2016, Wojcicki spoke at Fortune’s Most Highly effective Ladies Summit with creator Grace Helbig and Fortune’s Jennifer Reingold on the evolution of media, the creator economic system, and her imaginative and prescient for YouTube as the way forward for TV.
Learn Fortune’s obituary for Susan Wojcicki right here.