After nine years of her appointment as CEO of the world’s largest online video sharing and social media platform (YouTube), Susan Wojcicki, has decided to step down from her role.
Wojcicki, who joined Google as its 16th employee in 1999, made this known in a statement on Thursday.
She revealed that she would be starting a “new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.”
Her statement read in part, “Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.
“The time is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team in place at YouTube. When I joined YouTube nine years ago, one of my first priorities was bringing in an incredible leadership team.
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Revealing that she will be replaced by the current YouTube head of product, Neal Mohan, she said, “Neal Mohan was one of those leaders, and he’ll be the SVP and new head of YouTube. I’ve spent nearly 15 years of my career working with Neal, first when he came over to Google with the DoubleClick acquisition in 2007 and as his role grew to become SVP of Display and Video Ads. He became YouTube’s Chief Product Officer in 2015.
Since then, he has set up a top-notch product and UX team, played pivotal roles in the launch of some of our biggest products, including YouTube TV, YouTube Music and Premium and Shorts, and has led our Trust and Safety team, ensuring that YouTube lives up to its responsibility as a global platform. He has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees. Neal will be a terrific leader for YouTube”
Under Wojcicki’s leadership for nearly a decade, YouTube has faced a number of concern about misinformation and hate speech on the platform.
In January 2021 YouTube joined a number of other tech platforms in banning Donald Trump for fomenting election unrest in the US. The former president remains suspended from the platform, and it is unclear if Wojcicki’s departure will affect the decision.
