YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki to step down

The Chief Executive Officer at YouTube, Susan Wojcicki is leaving the video mega-site.

The tech executive, who was one of Google’s first employees, is resigning after spending more than nine years in the role, she announced on Thursday.

“Twenty-five years ago I made the decision to join a couple of Stanford graduate students who were building a new search engine,” she wrote in an email to employees.

“Their names were Larry and Sergey. I saw the potential of what they were building, which was incredibly exciting, and although the company had only a few users and no revenue,” she continued, “I decided to join the team.

“It would be one of the best decisions of my life.”

Wojcicki is leaving to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.”

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s founders, rented Wojcicki’s garage in Menlo Park, Calif., for five months in 1998 and hired her shortly after they moved into Google’s first office.

The company later bought the home to serve as a company monument.

“Susan has a unique place in Google history and has made the most incredible contribution to products used by people everywhere,” Page and Brin said in a statement. “We’re so grateful for all she’s done over the last 25 years.”

YouTube’s current chief product officer Neal Mohan will become the company’s CEO.

“With all we’re doing across Shorts, streaming and subscriptions, together with the promises of AI, YouTube’s most exciting opportunities are ahead,” Wojcicki wrote.

She is the latest tech executive to leave a high-profile post.

In 2021, Jeff Bezos resigned as Amazon’s CEO. A year later, Sheryl Sandberg left Facebook and Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal was fired after Elon Musk bought the company.